Town Hall Meeting in Rockville Centre focuses on underage drinking and drug use

It was 1990. Then five-year village cop Charles Gennario was first to respond to a report of an overturned vehicle on Sunrise Highway near the border of Lynbrook and Rockville Centre. When he got there, he knelt down and peered inside the vehicle — silence. The 19-year-old girl inside was dead. He later found out that she had been drinking and driving.

Gennario — now village police commissioner — is painfully aware of the costs of drinking and drug abuse. He told this story at a March 28 Town Hall Meeting — organized by various community groups — as a reminder that such experiences compel local law enforcement officials to prevent these types of incidences in ways few others could understand.

Still, despite their efforts, they can’t do it alone, especially in the face of the current opioid crisis; narcotic investigations can be slow and village police have limited jurisdiction. That was why a panel of representatives from Rockville Centre Schools, Confide Counseling, a drug and alcohol abuse resource; Dynamic Youth Community, a drug rehabilitation organization and the Rockville Centre Coalition for Youth flanked the commissioner on both sides. Together — speaking to a group of roughly 70 parents and community members — they represented a multi-pronged approach to addressing the ongoing problem of drug addiction and underage drinking.

The panel had straightforward advice for parents who may suspect their children who may be using controlled substances; confront them, and confront them early. “The best thing you can do is plant the seed,” said Eric Braun, 21, a youth coalition member and recovering addict. He warned parents not to back children into a corner but urged that they take action and explain the risks of drug and alcohol use.

Others had similar advice. “You do everything for your kids,” said Maureen McCormick, chief of vehicular crimes for the Nassau County District Attorney, who gave a presentation at the meeting. “Don’t let them take this chance.”

On the school side, Assistant School Superintendent Noreen Leahy outlined what the village’s school district is doing to combat and prevent substance abuse. She said it engages in periodic assessments to determine problem areas in the school population and intervene when necessary. She encouraged parents to participate in school sponsored parent information sessions so that they know when addiction problems arise and what they can do to prevent or treat them.

For kids and young adults who have fallen into addiction, the panel had help for them too. Art Rosenthal of Confide Counseling & Consultation Center outlined some of the services his organization provides out of its Rockville Centre location, such as interventions and referrals to rehabilitation services.

William Fusco of Dynamic Youth Community, a substance abuse rehabilitation group with facilities in Fallsburg and Brooklyn said that rehab takes time and can be costly, but his organization will admit anyone regardless of income. “We will not refuse anybody because they are not able to pay,” he said before introducing Leilani Dochylo, 22, a recovering addict living at Dynamic’s Brooklyn facility.

Dochylo recounted her downward spiral into heroin addiction. She moved to North Shore Long Island from Canada after her parents’ divorce. She was 16 and fell into a bad crowd, she said. It started with pills — OxyContin — until they became too expensive. She moved onto heroin, which was cheaper and easier to come by. “I was so desperate to not be sober,” she said as she continued her emotional account. After years of abuse, she knew she had a problem and sought help. Dynamic’s upstate facility was appealing to her — it was isolated. It was there that she started to reclaim her life.

“It’s still hard,” Dochylo admitted. “It’s a process and I’m still early.” But things that were inconceivable to her just a few years ago now seemed within her grasp. “I was happy as a kid,” she said, noting how drugs cut her childhood short. “Now it’s all coming back.”

Beyond advice for prevention, intervention and recommendations for addiction resources, simple solutions for the broad and growing heroin problem were elusive. Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, who is currently running for county executive, gave a brief speech at the outset of the meeting. He called for a multi-tiered audit of the opioid problem to look at law enforcement statistics, causes, demographics and effective treatments and determine where county resources could best be used.

His proposal did not sit well with Hicksville resident Lesley Culp. “While you’re studying our children are on the streets, dying,” she shouted to applause. “They’re dropping like flies!” She suggested he educate himself on the particulars of the issue. He reiterated his proposal and left it at that before exiting the room.

The statistics tend to confirm the grim picture Culp painted with her statement. According to Gennario, out of the 400 arrests his department made in 2016, 25 percent were narcotics related, and although incidences of overdose in the village were lower than previous years, the commissioner said he believes that is due to the widespread use of Narcan, a drug that prevents the deadly effects of a heroin overdose.

Still, there was a sense of hope, that if the group assembled at the table continued to hit the issue at every angle — prevention, school education, intervention, treatment and law enforcement — they would stem the loss of life. Leahy summed up this multi-faceted approach succinctly. “Do we need studies or do we need action?” she asked. “We need both.”