Over the last two days, The Eagle introduced readers to a growing problem affecting all of us who call Butler County home.

Eagle staff writer Tanner Cole opened the door to a world too many misunderstand and misjudge — the road to recovery from substance abuse. More importantly, his reporting offers insight into a growing problem staring down not only local schools, but schools across the nation.

Children whose lives are impacted by addiction.

Cole said it best in one line: “For so many, addiction arrives as the world’s worst hand-me-down.”

The Eagle’s new three-part series — Surviving the Family Tree — isn’t about shaming addicts into sobriety. It’s not about shocking people into action.

It’s about starting a community conversation that is long overdue. It’s about exploring the problem and offering a solution.

According to the PA Health Care Cost Containment Council, a study conducted in 2016 and 2017 revealed that for every 1,000 maternal hospital stays in Butler County, 28.8 births involved opioid use. That may sound low to some, but it’s still nearly 10 births more involving drug use than the statewide average of 19.6 births per 1,000 for the same time frame.

During the recent Stop Overdoses in Pa.: Get Help Now Week, centers across the state handed out 6,800 naloxone kits, 30 of which were distributed at a location here in Butler. Who would have ever thought that our great nation would reach such a critical point where homes need to be equipped with drug overdose reversal kits the same as smoke detectors?

On Sunday, the Eagle introduced readers to Jill, a local single mother who shared her very personal, very real struggle with addiction in hopes of helping others better understand the realities and dispel the rumors and stereotypes.

Today, readers met Tracy Hack, a mother whose children have struggled with addiction who wants to empower change for future generations by helping addicts get and stay sober. She brings to her role as coordinator of Butler County Community College’s Hope is Dope recovery group a very personal passion and perspective as a parent who can talk first-hand about the “collateral damage” of drug addiction on families.

Tonight, Butler Art Center collaborates with BC3 to host “Stories of Hope,” an event where recovering addicts are welcomed to share their journeys in an open-microphone setting. The family event is themed around the Butterfly Effect: The smallest movement of a butterfly’s wings may shift the weather in another part of the world.

Hack hopes little things will have major — and good — impacts.

We couldn’t agree more and hope the Main Street venue is packed to standing room only. It’s time for Butler County, Pennsylvania and the nation to open the door, and honestly evaluate the toll of substance abuse on generations of Americans.

Now more than ever in our country’s history with drugs, we need to stand up together. If not for our own sake, for the sake of our children’s future. This truly is our “It takes a village” moment, and we mustn’t let it pass us by without action.

Remember this: Even inaction is an action unto itself.

It’s time to stop stigmatizing substance abuse and start a community conversation aimed at ensuring the next generation gets the world’s best hand up, instead of the worst hand-me-down.