Growing Heroin Addiction Prompts Ledyard-Area Police to Take Action

Heroin addiction is not discriminatory and it certainly doesn’t stop at town lines. Because of this and the recent increase in overdoses and deaths due to opiate addiction, area police departments are addressing the issue together.

“This problem is affecting all our communities, and we are seeing people in all stages of life, across socio-economic lines suffering and in some cases, dying from this addiction,” said Town of Groton Police Department Chief L.J. Fusaro.

Police chiefs and leaders of several law enforcement agencies in southeastern Connecticut are implementing programs geared at directing enforcement and assistance efforts at the growing opiate addiction recently witnessed in the area.

Police chiefs from Groton Town, Groton City, Waterford, Stonington, Norwich, Ledyard and New London, along with representatives from East Lyme, Montville, Mashantucket Pequot, Adult Probation, Parole and the Connecticut State Police met to discuss strategies to combat the influx of heroin and the spike in overdoses and deaths recently seen in communities throughout the region.

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Each department pledged additional personnel and resources to target this problem and to work with the Statewide Narcotics Task Force to enhance enforcement efforts, while also exploring opportunities to offer other options for treatment to those suffering from opioid addiction, Fusaro said.

Representatives from the New London County State Attorney’s Office and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Initiative (HIDTA) are also working with the departments.

“As a group, the police chiefs in southeastern Connecticut recognize that we are not dealing with a problem unique to each of our towns,” Fusaro said. “It is a regional problem and we are looking to work together to address this problem as a group.”

(image via shutterstock)