With overdoses from opiate use increasing in the Cape Cod region, the Falmouth Police Department is taking action by hosting its first Opiate Coalition Summit this week. The hope is to find creative ways to stop people from using in the first place.
Statistics show that 2015 was a difficult year on Cape Cod in regards to drug overdoses, with 128 overdose cases reported in Falmouth alone. That's close to double what the number was from the previous year.
Falmouth Police Department's Captain Brian Reid, said part of the increase is due to drug cartels aggressively marketing heroin to the region as a response to lower profit margins in marijuana sales. But Reid also said that’s not the only explanation for why heroin use seems to be risings.
“We have identified the decrease in the availability of illegally supplied prescription medication,” Reid said. “A lot of people try the prescription meds, buying them on the streets. They then become less available and more expensive. People started to turn to heroin because it was a cheaper and more accessible option.”
In response to the opiate epidemic, Reid and the Falmouth Police Department will host the first day of an Opiate Coalition Summit this Friday, with an eye towards addressing the problems with opiate usage and working together to create a solution.
Reid said about 100 people are expected to participate, ranging from medical professionals to district attorneys, all invited based on their individual expertise and personal experience. The participants will be broken into teams, each developing a plan to eliminate the problem and then measure the effectiveness of their work as they move forward.
“The main goal is to save lives,” Reid said. “To save lives by mobilizing the community to increase awareness and reduce the availability and misuse of opiate drugs.”
The Opiate Coalition Summit is intended to be more than a discussion, using it as a platform for an ongoing process to have a long term impact within the community. The summit will be held on two different dates, the first on Friday and the second on February 5th at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel in North Falmouth. Reid and the Falmouth police department are hopeful the event will lead to an effective solution.
NOTE: Shelby Ince is an intern at WCAI and a student from the State University of New York at Oswego. For more information about the Summit, you can contact the Falmouth Police Department.
