Essex County Drug Diversion Program Hopes To Curb Opioid Epidemic
BOSTON (CBS) - The opioid epidemic is in the headlines, just like it was a decade ago, which is when Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said, "we've got to do something."
"State senator Steven Tolman approached me in the street in Boston about our mutual concerns for addicted people," Blodgett told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.
It was 2007 when then-state senator Tolman suggested that a district attorney do something different for people with heroin and opiate addiction issues.
That was the genesis of the Essex County Adult Drug Diversion Program, the only such program out of any D.A.'s office in Massachusetts.
"What's unique about this program is we're doing everything we can to catch people at the beginning of the process and the beginning of the cycle, which we're trying very desperately to break," Blodgett said.
When someone, usually between the ages of 17 and 27 is charged with a non-violent, non-distribution offense, where drug addiction was a likely motivation, that someone has a chance to wipe the slate clean.
"The idea, again Carl, is to have people understand that there is an alternative to prosecution and to jail," the D.A. said.
That alternative is treatment, coordinated by Project Cope, based in Lynn.
If you go through the program, you get the thumbs up from the clinician, and you have no criminal record. You can start again.
"You can hopefully convince somebody that you can break the cycle, by having the courage to go through a program like this, with long-term care administered by clinicians, is our goal, is to convince people this is the best alternative, to not just turn their lives around, but to save their lives in the long run," said Blodgett.
Listen to Carl's report: