By Andrea Holbrook
Gloucester Daily Times
GLOUCESTER, Mass. — It was a bad weekend on the heroin front in Gloucester, but not a fatal one.
Four people overdosed within 24 hours, Chief Leonard Campanello reported midday Sunday. The report came in a fervent post on the Police Department’s Facebook page directly addressing addicts, and reiterating the department’s commitment to its angel program.
“The good news is all were brought back to us by the increased availability and proliferation of Narcan,” he said, referencing an overdose-reversing drug.
The department’s angel program, launched June 1 of last year, pairs addicts who walk into the station and surrender their drugs with volunteers who accompany them through treatment and recovery. It also makes nasal Narcan available at pharmacies without a prescription, and the department has agreements with local drugstores that will allow anyone access to the drug at little or no cost, regardless of their insurance.
The chief referenced an earlier post of March 2015 as starting the whole thing: Then four overdoses occurring between January and March were fatal.
“You are important and worth it,” the chief said yesterday. “We know that you don’t want this. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help you when you want it. There is recovery and a new life that can and should be yours. You deserve it.”
“And if you’re discouraged because you’ve tried before,” he continues, “know that relapse is part of the disease and we will be there again and again and again until you make it. And you can make it. Even if you’re not ready, call us. We will put you in touch with someone from our program who is in recovery and has been in the same place as you. Someone who understands.
“We’ve dedicated the last 8 months to helping YOU. Why? Because we don’t want to lose you. When you’re ready, we will be here.”
Since its June 1 launch, more than 300 people have gone through the angel program, which has been has been serving as a model for more than 40 law enforcement agencies from Methuen and Arlington to a county 100 miles outside of Chicago. It has working “partnerships” with 55 treatment centers from New England to Florida and California, which Campanello thanked in his post.
He also laid down some challenges:
“Legislators, thank you for moving fast to start introducing bills that will at least help a part of the problem. Do more faster.”
“Prescribers, Pharma...we are waiting. And our patience grows thin. Do you want to be a real conduit to treatment and care, or do you want to be a dealer? Guess which one law enforcement wants you to be?”
And took a stance:
“The Gloucester Police Department, myself included, will accept no further award (sorry Michael Moore, but thank you) or recognition until every person in this country that suffers from addiction has immediate access to sustainable care.”
Copyright 2016 the Gloucester Daily Times