Winehole23
08-21-2015, 04:05 AM
The coastal Massachusetts town of Gloucester was in the middle of a quiet Friday evening this March when a phone call disturbed the police chief relaxing at home. Another deadly heroin overdose had just hit the city, the chief learned. It marked Gloucester’s fourth that year. Leonard Campanello put down the phone. He turned the grim math over in his head — four deaths, three months, in a city of 30,000 people.
Then Campanello, a stout commander who more growls than talks, stood up and rumbled over to the computer. He’s the sort of police chief who maintains an active presence on social media. He posts frequent “Gloucester Police Chief Updates” — episodic fireside chats delivered from his desk — to the police department’s Facebook page. Most of those remarks barely ripple — a dozen ‘likes’ at most.
But that was about to change. “Since January of this year, we have responded to dozens of opiate-related overdoses and, unfortunately, the City has seen 4 deaths in this time that are heroin related,” he wrote (https://www.facebook.com/GloucesterPoliceDepartment/posts/670922136351652), adding: “4 deaths is 4 too many.” Then in a moment Campanello now recalls as extemporaneous, he continued. “If you are a user of opiates or heroin, let us help you. We know you do not want this addiction. We have resources here in the City that can and will make a difference in your life. Do not become a statistic.”
[Related: The controversial method that helped turn one of America’s most murderous cities into one of its safest]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/06/01/the-case-for-why-baltimore-should-pay-murderous-residents-not-to-kill/)
The response was staggering. The post collected 1,226 “likes” and more page views than there were people in the city. It was then Campanello knew he was onto something. The community, he said, was hungry for different ideas. The number of heroin-related overdoses quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, when more than 8,200 people died, according (http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heroin/) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The trend has hit Massachusetts — and Gloucester — especially hard.
“The war on drugs is over,” Campanello said in an interview. “And we lost. There is no way we can arrest our way out of this. We’ve been trying that for 50 years. We’ve been fighting it for 50 years, and the only thing that has happened is heroin has become cheaper and more people are dying.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/08/17/the-only-town-in-america-where-cops-grant-amnesty-to-drug-addicts-seeking-help/
Then Campanello, a stout commander who more growls than talks, stood up and rumbled over to the computer. He’s the sort of police chief who maintains an active presence on social media. He posts frequent “Gloucester Police Chief Updates” — episodic fireside chats delivered from his desk — to the police department’s Facebook page. Most of those remarks barely ripple — a dozen ‘likes’ at most.
But that was about to change. “Since January of this year, we have responded to dozens of opiate-related overdoses and, unfortunately, the City has seen 4 deaths in this time that are heroin related,” he wrote (https://www.facebook.com/GloucesterPoliceDepartment/posts/670922136351652), adding: “4 deaths is 4 too many.” Then in a moment Campanello now recalls as extemporaneous, he continued. “If you are a user of opiates or heroin, let us help you. We know you do not want this addiction. We have resources here in the City that can and will make a difference in your life. Do not become a statistic.”
[Related: The controversial method that helped turn one of America’s most murderous cities into one of its safest]
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/06/01/the-case-for-why-baltimore-should-pay-murderous-residents-not-to-kill/)
The response was staggering. The post collected 1,226 “likes” and more page views than there were people in the city. It was then Campanello knew he was onto something. The community, he said, was hungry for different ideas. The number of heroin-related overdoses quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, when more than 8,200 people died, according (http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heroin/) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The trend has hit Massachusetts — and Gloucester — especially hard.
“The war on drugs is over,” Campanello said in an interview. “And we lost. There is no way we can arrest our way out of this. We’ve been trying that for 50 years. We’ve been fighting it for 50 years, and the only thing that has happened is heroin has become cheaper and more people are dying.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/08/17/the-only-town-in-america-where-cops-grant-amnesty-to-drug-addicts-seeking-help/