Local leaders tackle growing heroin problem

There were 35 drug overdoses in Long Beach last year. Six were fatal, and four of those were attributable to heroin.

In light of the apparently growing heroin problem on Long Island, the city held a public forum on March 12 to let residents know about the efforts being made to combat drug abuse, as well as prevention methods and resources for people struggling with addiction.

A panel made up of local leaders and drug abuse specialists spoke about the prevention and treatment effort, and made it clear that drug abuse is a community problem, and that residents must get involved to help end it. Police Commissioner Michael Tangney detailed the law enforcement side of the problem, and audience members also heard about ways to prevent substance abuse among teenagers from Judi Vining, coordinator of the Coalition Against Underage Drinking, and Schools Superintendent David Weiss.

A local pediatrician, Dr. Matthew Cohen, spoke about how to recognize if a person has drug problem. And representatives of Long Beach Reach and the South Shore Association for Independent Living focused on treatment available locally for addicts.

Tangney said that in Long Beach, there were 29 overdoses in 2012, six of them fatal and one of those from heroin. So far this year, he said, there have been six overdoses, four of them fatal. Last year in Nassau County, there were 821 emergency calls for overdoses, and 119 were fatal.

The current heroin problem is an unintended consequence of the crackdown on illicit prescription pill use, Tangney explained, adding that the county and the city were successful in making pills hard to find, but they solved a distribution problem without curing the addiction problem. Pill addicts made the switch to heroin, a cheaper, more easily attainable alternative. Studies have found that 70 percent of kids who use heroin say they started with prescription pills.

“We do see a spike, and we do see the need for intervention,” Tangney said. “We want people to get help.”