Drug Abuse Prevention Programming Funded In Strongsville Via Grant

STRONGSVILLE, OH — The D.A.R.E. program in Strongsville will continue thanks to a grant from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. The drug abuse prevention grant has been awarded to police departments and sheriffs' offices throughout the state for years. This year, Strongsville received $32,838.75 from DeWine's office.

For the past several years, Strongsville has been a recipient of the grant. According to a release from DeWine, all grant funds must be used to establish or maintain drug abuse prevention education and awareness programs for students during the 2017-2018 school year. Departments are also required to provide over-the-counter prescription medication abuse and prevention programs.

"The abuse of prescription drugs is one of the primary reasons behind the current opiate epidemic in Ohio, which is why it's important that students receive age-appropriate lessons about the dangers of these and other drugs at an early age," said DeWine in a statement.

About 130 police departments and sheriffs' offices received grants from DeWine's office in 2017. (To stay up to date on local stories, subscribe to the Patch Strongsville newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

Deputy Chief Anthony Zacharyasz of Strongsville Police says the department has received some money via the grant program for the past several years.

Two Strongsville residents died from fatal heroin/fentanyl overdoses in April, according to a report from the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. Strongsville was one of two suburban cities to record more than one heroin/fentanyl overdose death that month, the other being Lakewood.

Strongsville Police Chief Mark Fender said in January 2017 that battling the heroin crisis was one of his top priorities.

"We have a very active group of people that are proactive in investigating and prosecuting drug trafficking. We have guys that are passionate about getting that stuff off our streets. I think of the city of Strongsville as my house. We develop a culture where each officer has a sense of responsibility that when something occurs in our city, it occurs in their house," he said at the time. "How many of us would want those drugs coming into our house? We wouldn’t. It would be unacceptable. There should be a passion coming from each of us. We investigate to the fullest and work those cases all the way up to distribution and work with state and federal partners to produce arrests."

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