NJ Attorney General Hosting Opioid Community Forum In Glen Rock

GLEN ROCK, NJ — State, county, and local law enforcement officials will host a community forum at Glen Rock High School May 21 to discuss the ongoing opioid epidemic in Bergen County.

The forum is at the high school auditorium at 7 p.m. Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, Glen Rock Police Chief Dean Ackermann, and officers from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office will speak.

There were 111 heroin- and opioid-related deaths in Bergen County in 2017.

The prosecutor's office created Operation Helping Hand in response to an increase in drug overdoses Bergen County between 2015 and 2016. Eighty-seven people died from drug overdoses during that time; 70 of them were heroin and opioid-related.

The fourth iteration of the program was held last year with the help of police departments from 30 Bergen County towns, recovery specialists, physicians from New Bridge Medical Center and specialists from the Bergen County Department of Health.

Nineteen people arrested for heroin and drug possession during Operation Helping Hands got help for their addiction and 12 entered a detoxification program.

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