Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Petition to address a growing substance abuse problem within Lancaster

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    8,922

    Petition to address a growing substance abuse problem within Lancaster

    At Tuesday evening’s Lancaster Town Board meeting the writer addressed the board on the opioid/heroin epidemic afflicting the country, and in particular the Town of Lancaster.

    Chowaniec: Everyone is aware from reading/hearing the news on the media outlets that there is an opioid/heroin use epidemic. In the last town board communications agenda the town received a report from the Lancaster Voluntary Ambulance Corps (LVAC)* a report on the number of service calls they made for 2017 and in this month’s communication for the first month of 2017. There were a total of 5,110 for 2016 and 524 for January 2017. The number of calls has increased with the addition of services now provided for the Town of Alden.

    A few weeks ago there was a WGRZ-TV interview with a young lady from Lancaster who came forward to talk about her drug addiction and that she wants to get it out to the public what a ‘monster’ her heroin addiction was, how she got to that point and how she was saved by the efforts of Town Justice Anthony Cervi and his Drug Court decision.

    Most of are aware of some family suffering the agony of substance abuse. It has been reported that there were 324 opioid/heroin deaths in Erie County for the 2016 year and 50 in the first month of 2017. The LVAC report for 2016 listed the following in service calls:

    Advanced Life Support (ALS) - 1,848
    Basic Life Support (BLS) – 2,136
    Cancelled/Standby/ No patient found – 380
    Patient Refused Care – Transport – 113
    Treat/Release – 369
    Treat/Release (ALS) - 84
    Lift Assist – 115
    DOA – 63
    Treat/Transfer Care – 2

    Total Calls – 5,110 (Pre-Hospital)

    You have all read the LVAC reports, so I ask of this board do you have added information as to how many calls related to opioid/heroin events and how many resulted in deaths? (No response from the board.)

    Why is there no such information to be had from the town/police so the residents of Lancaster have an understanding of the seriousness of substance abuse taking place? Not names and/or specifics, just number of occurrences. The young lady giving the interview declared that she knew of seven others that had died from heroin overdoses.

    It is clear that there is a drug problem nationwide and it permeates every municipality. Why doesn’t the town or the police report incident usage (not names or specifics) to inform the town of its presence; avenues for seeking help and treatment and a proactive approach to publically outreach to have recovering addicts appear at town board meetings to offer hope to others suffering like addictions or relate the path of consequence that awaits those tempted to begin substance abuse with softer gateway drugs.

    I also believe it would be worthwhile to have Drug Court Justice Cervi attend a town board meeting to address the board and public on what he experiences in the court and advice, drug usage and recidivism percentages to the public; as Justice Montour once did in the past when he ran the Drug Court. There is a bad drug problem in Lancaster.

    Supervisor Johanna Coleman: Very bad!

    Chowaniec: The children hear about the evils of substance abuse in the schools. Unfortunately, parents are not as informed. Another article in today’s news stated that this is a family involvement and that a lot of times people don’t know which way to turn.

    I would like the board to invite Justice Cervi to a meeting and talk about his drug court experiences, rehab opportunities, recidivism rates, etc. We should no longer hide from a problem that is getting worse and where today’s illicit drugs are more potent than in the past. Parents need to know how bad the drug issue is and the number of deaths occurring so that they can be proactive in what to look for and how to address the problem before it becomes too late.
    Supervisor Coleman spoke on her personal knowledge regarding substance use events and expressed that she would offer Justice Cervi an invite to attend a town board meeting or forum, with the media present.

    Chowaniec: If I wanted to get a count on substance abuse occurrences and resulting deaths, who should I contact for that information? Is that information available to the public?

    Coleman: I don’t know. You would have to speak to Police Chief Gill.

    Chowaniec: I would hope it would be made public as it would put to rest the different claims made on how bad the abuse is in our town. The residents have a right to know.

    *The Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps, also known as the LVAC & simply as Lancaster Ambulance is a not-for-profit (501c3) EMS agency in Lancaster, New York. The Corps primary response area is the Village & Town of Lancaster, the Village of Depew and the Village & Town of Alden (as of August 2016), New York. It also responds to areas via mutual aid agreements and requests for service.

    LVAC responds 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The LVAC is a combination EMS agency, having a career staff on duty 24/7 and supplemented by a volunteer staff. Lancaster Ambulance covers a population of about 90,000 people in a geographic area of approximately 83 square miles and responds to over 5,000 EMS requests a year.

    The Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps is dispatched by the Lancaster Police Department and receives online medical direction through the Erie County Medical Center.

  2. #2
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    8,922
    Recently much attention and information has been provided nationally and locally regarding the use and deaths resulting from the heroin/opioid epidemic. Just today, County Executive Mark Poloncarz addressed the media on a bad batch of heroin being sold in the Allentown area.

    Poloncarz reported that where there has been an average of seven deaths per week in the county, there have been seven deaths in the past 24 hours. There have been 55 deaths in the first 40 days of 2017 and it is expected that this year’s total will surpass that of 2016 (256).

    At the March 20th Lancaster town board meeting I again requested the town inform its residents of the number of heroin/opioid cases from police reports or from the Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Company (LVAC) monthly reports it posts in the town’s communications – giving the number of overdose calls, average age of users and resulting deaths.

    In unison the board agreed with that there is a serious heroin/opioid problem in town. They also agreed that the issue is not as prevalent in the schools (as some believe) as in the community. Upon questioning, a police officer present at the work session related that in one weekend alone there were 12 drug related calls in Lancaster.

    I requested the community be informed of the seriousness and number of incidents because the average age of the individual overdosing in Lancaster is in the mid-twenties. Parent need to hear that and understand that once their children leave the school system they are not free from the concern that their children will abuse prescription or street drugs.

    I also suggested the town use their website to pass along the use issue and suggested organizations and educational outlets to contact to aid family members. I also suggested such outlets make appearances at town board meetings on occasion to inform/update the public on status.

    Again, this is a nationwide epidemic where every municipality has a substance abuse problem. Unless we define what the seriousness is by actually identifying the scope of the problem, the so-called, “We are going to address the opioid/heroin problem,” are meaningless words.

    Lastly, a shocking revelation came from the police officer when he declared that the overdose problem has grown significantly in the past few years because of the ‘laced’ heroin drugs hitting the streets. He also related how sad and upsetting it is to learn that when abusers hear there is a lethal batch of heroin on the streets, some users will buy those drugs looking for a bigger high or believing they can correctly cut the batch strength to get a bigger high without risk of death.

    I would encourage others to seek information where Lancaster stands on the substance abuse problem, what's being done to address it and what services are out there to provide help. We are losing our loved ones at an alarming rate and we spend an inordinate amount of time and money on the political claptrap going on in Washington.

  3. #3
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    8,922
    Heartbreaking

    I would like to thank the person that sent me this as they know my interests in attempting to get information from the town on the number of instances and types of substance abuse overdoses and resulting deaths – just the number, no personal information attached – to no avail. Like all other municipalities across the nation, Lancaster has a serious drug problem. Until the number is defined, the seriousness and age group, the extent cannot be realized.

    From the Lancaster police blotter- With a 4 and a 7 year old in the car.

    Patrols checked a report of erratic operation of a vehicle on Walden Avenue. An officer observed the vehicle in question strike a guard rail, a highway marker and then continue down into a culvert before finally coming to a stop. The 30 year old female driver from Akron was semi-conscious. Two children, ages 4 & 7, were freed from the vehicle and were not injured. The driver was administered 2 doses of Narcan by L.V.A.C. medics. She was arrested and charged with 2 counts of aggravated D.W.I. (a class E felony), 2 counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, 2 counts of endangering the welfare of a child, driving while ability impaired by drugs, A.U.O. in the third degree and other traffic charges.

  4. #4
    Member gorja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, NY
    Posts
    13,151
    Hopefully, this episode in this mother's life will be the event that brings her to seek help for her addiction.

    Georgia L Schlager

  5. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    8,922
    Since officials in Erie County held a March 30 conference announcing the deaths of seven people in 24 hours from suspected opioid overdoses, 10 more people are suspected to have fallen victim to the drugs.

    http://wivb.com/2017/04/06/10-more-d...oid-overdoses/

    To state that the county does not have the situation under control is an understatement. It has been reported that the police are aware of where the bad batch of drugs are being sold, and yet no arrests.

  6. #6
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    8,922
    Since that posting in February it has been impossible to get any information regarding substance abuse numbers in Lancaster – especially heroin or opioid numbers and related call backs or deaths.

    I had approached the town board, the police, the Drug Court Justice and LVAC on the matter. In today’s town board communications LVAC entered another report that listed they responded to 488 total calls servicing Lancaster and Alden. Nothing in that report indicates number of calls responding for substance abuse incidents; or type and outcome.

    “We have a serious drug problem in Lancaster,” said Supervisor Coleman at that February town board meeting. I had been told by a few individuals I had approached that that general information could be released as long as no personal information was included. That is exactly what I requested. For whatever reason, my request was not honored. What happens in Lancaster stays in Lancaster.

    Here we are less than four weeks away from Election Day and I do not know of any Town of Lancaster candidate seeking election seeing the importance of taking a position on this tragedy.

  7. #7
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    8,922
    Five indicted, accused of supplying fentanyl in six overdose deaths

    http://buffalonews.com/2018/04/13/si...al-indictment/

    The victims ranged from a 21-year-old Lockport woman and 45-year-old Buffalo man to three men from Lancaster, ages 24, 31, and 36. The grand jury indictment identifies them only by initials.

    Three men from Lancaster, more information than can be had from any Town of Lancaster elected official, the Lancaster School District, the Lancaster Police, Lancaster Volunteer Ambulance Corps or the Lancaster Bee.

    Oh yes, they all agree that we have a serious issue in our town regarding substance abuse, and yes we have resources to address issues when needed and sought - when it's too late. But to inform the general public in Lancaster as to how serious the issue is and to help families not impacted on what to look for or be concerned about there is nada!

    We often hear Lancaster High School referred to as ‘Heroin High’ and the center of concern for drug use. It is no different than any other district in drug use; or is it? We don’t know or ever will know without information.

    “We have a serious drug problem in Lancaster,” acknowledged Supervisor Coleman when I brought the issue up at a town board meeting. Try to get any information from any agency in the town and you will be met with silence – as I experienced.

    How sad there is no one in the town that will address the seriousness of the problem and provide guidance to parents on what to look for and where to seek counseling if need be before an addiction and possible death has to occur.

  8. #8
    Member mark blazejewski's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    5,308
    Quote Originally Posted by Lee Chowaniec View Post



    “We have a serious drug problem in Lancaster,” acknowledged Supervisor Coleman when I brought the issue up at a town board meeting. Try to get any information from any agency in the town and you will be met with silence – as I experienced.
    Lee, transparency, like responsiveness, is applied very selectively in both the village and town.

  9. #9
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    8,922
    Finally, some public news regarding proactive opioid measures in the Town of Lancaster; giving credit where credit is due.

    https://www.lancasterbee.com/news/20...ted_in_La.html

    https://www.lancasterbee.com/news/20...ghts_back.html

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Lancaster-Depew substance abuse survey results
    By Lee Chowaniec in forum Village of Lancaster and Town of Lancaster Politics
    Replies: 9
    Last Post: November 23rd, 2011, 01:42 AM
  2. Lancaster/Depew Substance abuse report
    By Lee Chowaniec in forum Village of Lancaster and Town of Lancaster Politics
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: October 13th, 2011, 07:35 AM
  3. Substance abuse in Lancaster
    By Lee Chowaniec in forum Village of Lancaster and Town of Lancaster Politics
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: January 26th, 2010, 05:16 PM
  4. Lancaster/Depew Substance Abuse Coalition establishes Youth/Family Services Division
    By speakup in forum Village of Lancaster and Town of Lancaster Politics
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: March 15th, 2009, 12:22 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •