http://www.ongov.net/health/heroin/
This article is from the Onondaga County website. It talks about the causes of heroin use, addiction, and overdoses. It credits the growth of heroin addiction to being closely tied to the spread of opioid prescription painkillers. People who are prescribed painkillers to help heal from surgeries, injuries, and/or accidents can oftentimes become addicted because of the strength of these drugs. When the prescription runs out, patients can be left with an addiction problem. Acquiring these drugs on the black market can be expensive, so patients will switch to a much cheaper, stronger, and readily available drug; heroin. This is a problem that affects not only the poor or residents of Central New York area but the rest of the United States as well.
http://www.syracuse.com/state/index.ssf/2016/01/new_york_offering_1700_free_cribs_to_poor_parents.html#incart_river_index
This article is from Syracuse.com. It discusses how New York State is giving out 1,700 free baby cribs to those receiving public assistance. The goal is to provide babies from poor families with a safe place to sleep. Every year 90 babies die in New York from poor sleeping conditions. The program’s goal is to educate and provide parents with the means to help their babies sleep properly as such a fragile and crucial age.
The author of the first source is the Onondaga County government. The audience of this piece are the citizens of Onondaga county and the Syracuse area. I would say the purpose of this article is to make citizens aware of the growing problem of heroin addiction and overdose. It also informs the audience of the resources available in the Syracuse area for those suffering from addiction and are at risk of overdose. The context is that doctors prescribed these powerful painkillers to everyday people with pain issues. It did not take very long for many of these patients to become addicted. When their prescription dried up, many patients were left with a severe addiction problem. Many of them tried to find their painkillers on the black market. However, prescription painkillers can be hard to find and expensive. Many people turned to heroin because it is cheaper, more powerful, and much more readily available. This is a problem that is on a national level. In recent years, there has been a stronger push by citizens and government officials to take action. Part of taking action is informing the public about this issue and giving them the resources to combat it; like how this website does.
The author of the second source is Mike McAndrew; a New York State government reporter for syracuse.com and the Post-Standard. He is writing this piece for syracuse.com, which is a news website for citizens of the Syracuse area. The purpose of this article is to highlight the issue of accidental infantile death what New York state is doing to prevent it. Every year 90 babies die from a lack of proper care. Part of caring for a baby is providing it with a safe place to sleep at night; a crib. It is very simple and relatively inexpensive for the state to provide cribs for poor families to prevent infantile deaths.