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.