La Plata, MD – It’s a scourge that won’t be easily fixed.
Charles County Health Officer Dr. Dianna E. Abney and Charles County Circuit Court Judge Helen I. Harrington outlined the county’s Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council’s policies Tuessday, March 10, telling the Charles County Commissioners that while alcohol is still the top drug of choice, the county is unfortunately seeing opiate usage twice as high as the state.
“Opiates are on a sharp increase,” Abney stated. “We would like to have fewer opiate-related visits going forward.”
Abney said her agency does a good job getting citizens in treatment programs.
“We do a good job of getting people outpatient treatment through the health department,” she said.
“The problem starts very young,” Abney added. “We have had 12-year-olds who say, ‘I like the way it feels … I’m going to take daddy’s Percocet.”
Harrington said the county is seeing a dramatic use in synthetic drugs in the county.
“In addition to opiates and alcohol, we are still seeing cocaine,” she said. “K-2 [synthetic marijuana] and PCP are coming back again.”
Harrington admitted it’s a “tough love” approach which seems to work best, saying she will sometimes incarcerate users, just to get them clean so that treatment can begin.
“When they have to appear before a judge every two weeks, they have to be held accountable,” she said. “We try to encourage people to make small changes in their lives. Seventy-five percent of program graduates remain arrest free,” she pointed out.
She said if she can get violators into the program, it ultimately is a cost savings for the county, because to keep a prisoner incarcerated in the Charles County Detention Center can cost as much as $18,000 to $20,000 per inmate, and that in the Maryland Department of Corrections, the cost is closer to $20,000 to $25,000.
“I have held people in jail so they can detox,” she said.
Harrington said she attended an event at the Jude House recently.
“There were people there who were sober and straight who weren’t sober and straight when they were in my courtroom,” Harrington noted.
The numbers aren’t all good, Abney admitted.
“They don’t always tell us the whole story,” she said. “Quite a few are doing a combination of opiates and heroin. More than 10 percent of our patients are doing more than one drug at the time. Sixty percent of the people walking in do have an opiate addiction.
Harrington said that the county is leaning for less of a law enforcement solution and more of a public support solution.
“When people are ready, that’s when we need to be available to help them,” Abney added.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com.