Police Chief Leonard Campanello of Gloucester, Massachusetts is taking a new approach to addressing the epidemic of heroin and prescription pain pills, together having killed 47,055 people in 2014 nationwide. Through the Gloucester Angel Program, any addict who walks into the police station asking for help who surrenders their drugs and paraphernalia is not charged and instead is sent to treatment “on the spot.” Since the program began, 391 addicts have turned themselves in, 56 police departments in 17 states have started similar programs and 200 treatment centers across the country have signed on as partners.
Read more in the New York Times article, “Massachusetts Chief’s Tack in Drug War: Steer Addicts to Rehab, Not Jail.”
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