Independent LivingBrightmore University Presents “Declaring War not on Drugs, but Drug Dealers”
March 20, 2018
Brightmore University presented, “Collaborations & Criminal Outcomes of the Opioid/Opiate Epidemic” presented by our Local District Attorney, Ben David. The residents of Brightmore and community members joined together to listen to our region’s coordinated community efforts, court’s innovative techniques on how to handle drug abusers/dealers, and how we, as a part of this community, can contribute in the fight against an epidemic affecting our youth, adults and our mature populations. We lead the country in the highest for heroin drug abuse in both dealing and using. D.A. Ben David came to enlighten us on how this ripple effect for our young ones gets started and what our court system is doing to prevent the sales. Some of the statistics include: most heroin addicts don’t start with heroin, they start with pain pills and 75% start by stealing someone’s pain pills right out of the medicine cabinet; 175 people each day use heroin/opioids-that’s 165,000 a year; and 1 person a week die locally of an overdose. However, both the legal system and our medical systems are collaborating to make some changes so it won’t be so easy to get your hands on those pain pills that start this viscous cycle. D.A. Ben David has a “No Tolerance” for drug dealers…Prison is the only option. Even though this sounds like a lot of “gloom & doom”, we also talked about what are community is doing to educate our young children. If we start young, we can make the change we want to see, and that is exactly what Ben David is doing for our community! Also as a senior community, we need to make sure we are locking up all our medicines, disposing of them safely and properly and always know where they are going.