For Immediate Release

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 978-841-9948
Email: john@jgpr.net

Maynard Police Call Attention to Recovery Resources after Three Residents Overdose, Two Fatally, in Three Separate Incidents

MAYNARD — Chief Mark W. Dubois and the Maynard Police Department are urgently seeking to call attention to resources in town available for those suffering from substance use disorders, particularly those using opioids, as a recent spike in overdoses has taken two lives and left a third resident in critical condition after an overdose incident in another community.

Two 26-year-old men died in Maynard on Feb. 23 and March 24, in separate incidents after they allegedly overdosed on heroin. A third resident, a 35-year-old Maynard woman overdosed on March 24 in another city and is currently fighting for her life at a hospital in Central Massachusetts.

Chief Dubois is getting the word out to inform people about the dangers of opioids and the risk of overdose and to remind everyone about the resources available to prevent overdose death.

The Maynard Police Department is a member of the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) and is part of the Central Middlesex Police Partnership. The Department has retained the services of recovery coach Coretta McGill, and she is available free of charge to those in need of substance abuse services and their families. McGill can be reached at 978-216-9863 or via email at corettaamericorps@paariusa.org.

Again, there are NO COSTS associated with McGill’s recovery coach services, and her salary and compensation are paid by P.A.A.R.I. through its AmeriCorps program. There are no fees and no insurance is needed.

The Maynard Police Department can also assist families needing nasal narcan, which is available at pharmacies and can be acquired without a prescription in Massachusetts.

“We are not simply alerting our residents about this spate of overdoses. We have resources available to help those who are suffering from the disease of addiction,” Chief Dubois said. “One overdose death is too many, especially for that person’s friends and family and for our community to endure the senseless loss of life.”

Anyone with any questions or concerns can also contact the Maynard Police Department at 978-897-1011 or 978-897-1012 anytime.

ABOUT THE CENTRAL MIDDLESEX POLICE PARTNERSHIP

The CMPP was formed in 2016 by the police departments of Acton, Bedford, Concord, Carlisle, Lincoln, Lexington, Stow, Maynard and the Hanscom Air Force Base. Through partnerships with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Eliot Community Human Services, the Domestic Violence Services Network and Concord District Court, CMPP works to address growing concerns around substance abuse issues through targeted and ongoing substance use prevention, intervention and educational programming.

ABOUT P.A.A.R.I.:

The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to help law enforcement agencies establish pre-arrest programs that create immediate and stigma-free entry points to treatment and recovery programs.

P.A.A.R.I. works across sectors to provide training, coaching and support; program models, policies and procedures and templates; seed grants; connections to more than 300 vetted treatment centers; a network of like-minded law enforcement agencies; a unified voice with media and legislators; and capacity building through AmeriCorps.

P.A.A.R.I. is free to join and open to any law enforcement agency that believes in treatment over arrest and views addiction as a disease, not a crime. Since June 2015, P.A.A.R.I. has launched more than 375 law enforcement programs in 32 states, distributed 10,000 4mg doses of life-saving nasal naloxone and helped more than 12,000 people into treatment.

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