Heroin Use and Impact on Loudoun Residents: Event Friday

The event will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, 803 Sycolin Road, Leesburg.

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-10th District) and Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman as part of the Heroin Operations Team initiative that was announced in May 2015.

Other regional efforts include:

• Development of a toll-free Heroin HOTline where residents can seek help.
• Establishment of a multi-jurisdictional task force that will take a collaborative approach to pooling resources and coordinating investigations or user/drug rings.
• Formation of a community and law enforcement partnership dedicated to stopping the heroin epidemic in Northern Virginia.
• Coordinating public education and outreach to raise public awareness on the dangers of heroin and drug use.
• Continue an aggressive approach on prescription drug abuse which heroin users often site as the gateway for their use.

More at Patch: No One Could Save Briana. Not From Heroin.

Although heroin related overdoses have decreased 6 percent in Loudoun County in 2015, as compared to the same time period in 2014, fatal overdoses of heroin have nearly tripled nationwide since 2010.

In Loudoun County, the number of fatal heroin overdoses increased significantly between 2013 and 2014, however, collective efforts in Loudoun County for the first half of this year have resulted in a decline of fatal overdoses by 6 percent.