- Drugs
submitted by: Susanne Johnson
I worked a drug task force with the Saugus Police Department for seven years before taking my job as chief of the Gloucester Police Department. I arrested countless drug dealers, conducted undercover drug buys, locked up the bad guys. It’s respectable work, and the men and women doing it risk their lives every day, but my work made me aware that attacking the supply alone would never curb the nation’s drug problem.
For the past month, I have been talking about a new approach to tackling the drug epidemic here in Gloucester, and it has caught fire, spreading faster and further than I ever imagined. It’s called the Gloucester Program, and its foundation works by recognizing addiction as a disease. Beginning June 1, 2015, any addict who walks into my police station and asks for help will not be arrested, charged or prosecuted. Instead we will walk them directly into treatment and assign an “angel” to work with them immediately. We’re partnered with a local hospital to fast-track the process so the proper care can be administered quickly.
As someone who’s worked on both sides of the issue, this resonates with me personally. In Gloucester we will go after the demand for drugs. We also need to diminish the stigma associated with opiate addicts, the stigma that they are not worthy of our help. Lives are at stake, and lives are worth saving. That’s our job as cops.
It’s amazing to see that what began as an idea in a little city on the north shore of Massachusetts has grown into so much more in a matter of weeks. I traveled to Washington, D.C. to gain support from government leaders. I left with commitments from Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Seth Moulton. We got a proposal from State Senator Bruce Tarr to allocate $100,000 for a pilot program. Here in Gloucester I am working with Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, the city council and Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante to move the program forward. It is a collaborative effort.
As part of our Gloucester Program, nasal Narcan is now available at local pharmacies, and if you don’t have insurance, the police department will pay for it for you. Gloucester’s Conley’s Drug Store, CVS and Walgreens have partnered with the department to subsidize the cost of Narcan for the uninsured. How are we paying for it? With the money we seize from drug dealers. The money they used to kill people is going to be used to save drug victims’ lives.
If we open our doors to those who are in need of our help, we can create strength in numbers and alter the way we fight drug addiction in Gloucester, in Massachusetts and in this country.