Perryville's victims

Almost every town in America has its own drug culture. In 2000, drugs were involved in at least three of the five homicides that occurred in the small city of Perryville, Mo.

Last week, Perryville police were investigating three deaths that appeared to be caused by drug overdoses. All three people who died had been to the same party days earlier. Authorities believe they may have obtained tainted drugs at the party that killed them when taken days later.

Autopsies identified cocaine and the prescription drug Oxycontin in the bodies of Dwayne Alan Hill, 31, and Dean Novack, 19. An autopsy was not performed on the body of Michelle Welty, 35. Results of toxicology tests performed on all three are expected soon. Hill's body was found in a field. Novack and Welty were discovered dead at their residences.

We are used to reading these kinds of stories out of urban centers, but the deaths in Perryville are reminders that rural locales are far from immune from the plague of illegal drugs.

The makers of drugs like methamphetamine often seek out rural areas because their isolation offers protection from detection. But cocaine and Oxycontin are not homemade drugs. They had to be imported.

Illegal drug use is an American tragedy that affects us all directly or indirectly.

The latest tragic figures are Dwayne Alan Hill, Dean Novack and Michelle Welty, but the real victims are Hill's son and daughter, father, stepmother, mother, stepfather, brother, three half brothers and paternal grandmother, Novack's father and mother, two sisters, maternal grandmother, paternal grandparents and grandmother, and Welty's daughter, mother, father, brothers, maternal grandmother and paternal grandmother.