As opioid epidemic rages, area police departments seek to educate communities on drug abuse

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By Dakota Antelman, Contributing Writer

As opioid epidemic rages, area police departments seek to educate communities on drug abuse
A Marlborough police officer watches over a field of purple flags planted to memorialize each of the lives lost to opioid overdoses in 2016 during the recent Overdose Awareness Day vigil. (File photo/Dakota Antelman)

Region – Marlborough Police Chief David Giorgi said he saw little need for community outreach in response to the scattered drug overdoses he saw when he started his career as a patrol officer in the city in 1999.

Eighteen years later, his mindset has changed as his department responds to an average of more than one overdose per month.

That, however, is just one community and one police department feeling the force of the nationwide opioid epidemic. In all, police in Westborough, Northborough, Southborough, Marlborough, Hudson, Grafton and Shrewsbury reported they had responded to a total of 94 possible drug overdoses this year in response to records requests filed by the Community Advocate in late July. The region is on pace to surpass last year’s total of 144 possible overdoses by the end of the year.

Faced with that surge in overdoses, which began long before 2017, police departments and their officers are increasingly finding themselves in the roles of educators on the topic of drug abuse.

“We used to see it as ‘they have drugs, lock them up,’” Giorgi said. “Now it’s different. It’s about educating people and trying to prevent tragedies that are happening everywhere.”

When they started working, officers like Giorgi and Southborough’s Sean James entered a law enforcement field that was near the height of its War on Drugs era.

Though they still see many of the same drugs today that they saw in the 1980s and ‘90s, Giorgi and James agree that the law enforcement approach to policing those substances has changed.

“In the beginning, it was ‘lock them up, lock them up’ and it seems now that [there are] more resources,” Giorgi said. “More people are educated [and there are] more programs and funding. I’m hoping it’s actually going to make a difference.”

As these law enforcement experts note change, advocates like Marlborough’s Kathy Leonard fear that it may take more time to see the impact of that difference.

Rather than falling, overdose rates have continued to climb even as advocates and law enforcement agencies have worked to educate the public in recent years.

The New York Times reported in September that 64,000 people likely died of overdoses last year. That’s up from roughly 6,100 deaths in 1980 according to the Centers for Disease Control, and up from 52,404 deaths just the year before according to the Times.

Still, local departments are trying to save lives. The Marlborough Police now regularly attend meetings held by the local MetroWest Hope support group. Officers mingle with attendees and offer trainings in the use of Narcan, a drug that, when administered shortly after an overdose, can save a victim’s life.

Leonard, who helps organize MetroWest Hope, said she is grateful to the police for their help. Leonard lost her son to an overdose in 2014 and has increased her public advocacy for drug abuse awareness since then.

“When we have an event, they’re really willing to help me with the community,” Leonard said of the Marlborough Police. “Every time I ask them for something they’re like ‘Yes. What do you need?’ They’ll help me. They go to events. They’ll help get information out there and they’re more willing to be open-minded about what this is really about.”

Outside of Leonard’s partnership with the police department, the department and several other town agencies partner with one another on the Marlborough Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. The coalition serves as a conduit for communication between everyone from the school district to the police, to advocates on the topic of drug abuse.

“We’re there, the schools are there, Kathy is there, all kinds of groups are there,” Giorgi said of the coalition. “I think it’s important on our end to stay involved with it because it kind of shows that it’s not just a police matter.”

In Southborough, the police department has taken similar steps to educate its community.

They have a school resource officer working in local elementary and middle schools to build constructive relationships with students and parents. Likewise, that officer runs a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in the elementary schools.

Despite criticisms from many advocates who call it ineffective, James personally supports the DARE program his department has helped assemble.

“You have a relationship with the schools, the police and the children,” he said of the program. “They [the students] have a resource to go to.”

For many officers, this role as educators is a new one. Though they, too, know the epidemic may continue to worsen before it slows, people like James hope they’re beginning to find a more constructive response than the one national and local law enforcement tried for decades.

“I talk to people all the time and they’ll ask my opinion, ‘What do you think we should do?’” James said. “I say ‘We’re doing what we can do.’ The thing is, the more money that you provide for a resource, hopefully these programs are successful. How are you going to measure that? I don’t know.”

As opioid epidemic rages, area police departments seek to educate communities on drug abuse

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