By Carol McCracken (Post # 2,424)
You are invited to attend a forum – “Join the Conversation on Heroin” – Thursday September 24th at 5:30 pm. at the Rines Auditorium at the Portland Public Library, 5 Monument Square. There will be a panel of local experts, moderated by Joe Lawlor, reporter for the “Portland Press Herald,” as we attempt to understand the problem and identify what we can do about it. One of the panelists will be Assistant Chief Vern Malloch, of the Portland Police Department.
By now, most of us are aware of this growing epidemic here in the region and it is clear the issue is national in scope. Heroin is no longer found in only dark alleys. The fact that it is quickly being a drug being tried by our children is just one of the startling and distressing things that we are learning about this rapidly growing problem.
The number of people who died in Maine from heroin overdoses jumped from 7 in 2011 to 57 in 2014. Meanwhile, the number of users seeking treatment for heroin addiction swelled from 1,115 in 2010 to 3,643 last year. Nationally, the number of people addicted to heroin has more than doubled in a decade.
Join the conversation – the panel discussion will be followed by a question and answer session for community members.