Gloucester finds new ways to deal with opioid addiction

Gloucester has faced drug problem for years and now its police chief said on Tuesday that the city has found new ways to deal with the problem. These measures will be soon taken to control opioid addiction among people.

Chief Leonard Campanello said at police headquarters that the city is working with Addison Gilbert Hospital, local pharmacies, and an on-call network of volunteers and it wants its police department to tackle drug addiction in an appropriate way in place of sending people to jail.

According to Campanello, "Addiction is a disease and should be treated as such. As a community, we believe it's the right thing to do".

Several communities of Massachusetts have started working towards it. Over 1,000 deaths were associated with opioids in 2014 in these communities. They are making teams and collecting resources to deal with opioid addiction. However, Police Department in Gloucester is much dedicated to play a major role in treatment and recovery of the drug addiction.

The city also looks forward to pay for naloxone. It is a drug that helps reverse opioid overdoses, for those who have no insurance. According to Campanello assets seized from dealers in drug investigations will generate money.

Campanello said that there is no better way for using the money than to take it from criminals and save the lives of addicts, who get trapped in overdoses of drugs.

According to the chief, Naloxone is usually marketed as Narcan and it is already available without a prescription at local pharmacies. Increased use of the drug has led to objection that the addicts take overdoses of it since they know that risks associated with overdoses could be reversed by administration of Narcan.