PARIS — A newly formed task force in western Maine may be a point of light in the fight against heroin and other life-threatening drugs that have beleaguered the region in recent months.

The Western Maine Addiction Task Force is a collaborative group of federal, state, local and county government officials, private organizations, community nonprofits and concerned citizens who all have a stake in the health and well-being of western Maine communities, according to a news release the Paris Police Department issued Monday, formally announcing the formation of the group.

“(Heroin) has always been a problem, but it kind of really blew up within the last year,” Paris Interim Police Chief Lt. Jeffrey Lange said. “It’s been increasing steadily, especially with overdoses and deaths that are attributed to the drug.”

Lange is one of the primary organizers of the task force. He said the task force will tackle the heroin epidemic from several angles.

“Right now, we have broken into subcommittee groups,” Lange said. “We’ll look at education and prevention pamphlets, different forms of legislative awareness to pursue, funding through grants and donations, addiction case management and drug courts.”

Most of all, the task force hopes to become a resource for people struggling with dangerous drug addictions. They will be meeting every other week, with its next meeting to be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9, at the Paris Town Office.

“We’re in the very infant stages of starting this program,”  Lange said. “Our first meeting was more of a town discussion. We listened to the community and heard what they had to say what their concerns were. We’ve had a lot of support from the community.” 

The task force will redirect police force attention from the drug addicts to the root of the problem — the drug dealers and traffickers — by offering drug addicts a venue for seeking help without fear of arrest or retribution. It will also offer families and friends of addicts a place to seek education and information and an anonymous tip hotline for reporting criminal activity in the area.

Drug courts, for instance, Lange said, might offer an alternative to traditional criminal legal proceedings for individuals charged with possession of illegal drugs. Instead of filling jails with addicts and stretching limited resources to deal with drug users, drug courts might require offenders to complete a series of steps in lieu of jail time, possibly including counseling and treatment programs for the addiction.

“If you’re charged with possession, you’re not going to get anything out of being incarcerated and in jail,” Lange said. “All that does is burden the taxpayer and the Sheriff’s Department.” 

Another goal of the task force is to establish a network of volunteers in various areas of need. These volunteers might be professionals in the health or counseling fields, or just people willing to drive addicts to counseling sessions or support group meetings. The goal is to have enough resources at the task force’s disposal to remove obstacles that stand between addicts and their treatment.

The task force will operate under Healthy Oxford Hills so that the funds and grants the task force receives can be channeled through the already established organization.

Nobody is immune from heroin and its effects, Lange said.

“There is no demographic when it comes to heroin,” Lange said. “It travels across every age group, every socioeconomic group in the state. Nobody is eliminated from the clutches of this disease.” 

Some people are introduced to heroin as an alternative to prescription painkillers they may once have obtained legally from their own doctors. Once a person develops an addiction to painkillers and then finds him or herself cut off from the supply because of a doctor refusing to refill prescriptions, they begin to explore alternatives. Other times, people are introduced to heroin at parties or through friends.

“Once you’re hooked, you’re hooked,” Lange said.

Lange says the task force should open the door for area police to refocus their efforts on tracking down the people responsible for bringing drugs into the area.

“Just like any other drug, it comes up from Massachusetts. We get it directly from the Lynn/Lawrence area. There’s many, many people trafficking it in our area,” Lange said.

Lange said he hopes the proactive approach Western Maine Addiction Task Force is taking will help prevent a drug disaster in the region.

“If we had a bad batch come to our area, like Portland had a few weeks ago where they had 14 overdoses in a 24 hours, there’s no way, with all of our resources, as a rural community, we could handle something like that. So we need to get a plan together in case that does happen,” Lange said.

One of the next goals of the task force is to involve local schools in their mission.

More than 25 agencies and organizations are involved in the task force initiative, including every single police department in Oxford County and in the Cumberland County community of Bridgton. Other partners in the initiative include Healthy Oxford Hills, United Way of Oxford County, Western Maine Health, Stephens Memorial Hospital, Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Services, Common Ground Counseling, Tri-County Mental Services, Crooked River Counseling, Young People in Recovery, Self-Management and Recovery Training, Maine Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, state Sen. James Hamper, R-Oxford, state Rep. Lloyd “Skip” Herrick, R-Paris, Oxford Hills Law, Oxford County District Attorney’s Office, Oxford County Sheriff’s Office, Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative, PACE and River Valley Rising.

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