Heroin Fatalities in Harford County: 'These Are Not Just Numbers'

Heroin does not discriminate, Harford County leaders said at a town hall meeting Wednesday night in Bel Air.

“It’s not an Edgewood problem; it’s not a Havre de Grace problem,” Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said. “It is a human problem.”

There have been 97 nonfatal and 21 fatal overdoses in Harford County so far this year, Gahler said during the Sept. 9 heroin town hall forum.

The event was organized by the county government and the sheriff’s office to seek community solutions for the problem.

“We need to stem this tide somewhere,” Gahler said. “These are not just numbers. These are lives that are lost.”

Over the weekend, two people—a married couple—overdosed in one night in Havre de Grace, Gahler said.

“The husband survived; the wife did not,” Gahler said of the Saturday night fatality.

Most people who become addicted to heroin started with prescription drugs, according to Harford County Office of Drug Control Policy Director Joe Ryan.

He offered this practical advice: “Secure your medications.”

The basis for the forum was to come together as a community to raise awareness about heroin and to prevent its spread. The following were a few topics covered.

• Prevention: Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Canavan said that the school system practiced “making sure that children are exposed to realism” from a young age, whether that was learning to say no to something or by watching an educational performance about addiction. Gahler mentioned the county had made several public service announcements, including billboards and videos, to raise awareness of the widespread impact of heroin and the ages it was reaching children as well.
• Engagement: Parents were advised to stay engaged in their children’s affairs, questioning items like ripped sandwich bags or beer caps if found in their children’s belongings. “We want to interrupt the intimacy that kids have with drugs,” Ryan said. Secrecy is part of addiction. One person mentioned fun activities that did not involve drugs or alcohol and opportunities to help others as mechanisms for breaking the cycle of isolation in addiction.
• Treatment: Getting help to recover from addiction through treatment centers, medications, faith-based institutions, recovery houses and 12-step programs were ideas that surfaced, with questions about insurance and effectiveness also arising. In his remarks, Gahler said that inmates in the detention center are currently piloting a program by taking medication that cancels out the effects of heroin for 30 days after they are released to curb return to heroin addiction.

Do you have ideas for addressing Harford County’s heroin problem?Tell us in the comments!

Still shot from heroin town hall meeting broadcast on Periscope via the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.