our guest is the northwestern district attorney David Solomon thank you sir for
making time
two men always appreciate your time a commune in CS there is a significant
problem
with heroin addiction other opiates painkillers
significant number of overdoses and it's not just a problem in your area by any
means we make that clear
but when we see numbers coming out over a rural area
like Hampshire and Franklin counties and and I think it's what approaching
a dozen opiate overdose deaths in the last month month and a half or so
catches our attention how do you assess
assess the situation how bad is it what's happening were in them
mitzvah national opioid crisis
with overdoses and it all started with
just a plentiful supply I'll
painkillers from oxy konnen on down in so now we're kinda seeing
I what happens when these
pills have been really placed onto the market heroin is so cheap a
a pill may cost twenty dollars a.m. addiction to pills maybe
three or four hundred dollars a day while back how once five dollars
has never been more potent so we take that
that perfect storm I'll people getting started on pills
heroin being cheap and it being sometimes two or three times more potent
than it was five years ago
and that's the recipe for disaster that's what we're seeing what you see in
Raleigh areas
is that and that waved at my head south boston
or what store profits a Springfield maybe four five six years ago
has now hit rural areas and its plentiful
and the folks that are taking it are really playing Russian roulette
with the potency that's out there let's not go there so many aspects to this
and I know you stressed the social aspect the treatment aspect
you've said at times you you can't arrest or prosecute your way
I have an addiction crisis you got a task force
together that's looking at this age it's multi
a disciplinary if you were to cross the spectrum
I know there was a huge meeting in Greenfield Greenfield Community College
Franklin County
trying the whole community in and talk about it just this week
what's the approach that you see being taken to try and
combat this scourge the purse thing is that OPI
heroin addiction is an addiction it's a public health crisis we're in
and certainly you to senate we can terrestre incarcerate
our way our we've gotta help people get the treatment in the counseling in the
long term
care to keep them from being attics
and in this situation there are no
real substance but I'm out up treatment beds
in Western Mass there's very few I'll Governor Romney in 2003
a cut every single detox patton Hampshire in Franklin County
and North quad and so there isn't a single detox bed
in then the treatment beds they really need to be there we need to move from
prison on demand
to treatment on demand I'm are prosecutors don't wanna send people out
to jail to detox
and I think you feel that's reflected that
let's deal with this as a medical crisis
let's deal with this if we knew that %uh eleven people at eleven people have died
and an artistic love 250,000 people
since December 15 that great double the Massachusetts death rate for last year
so we're really in a missive a real crisis where
not just a overdoses but fatal overdose
you talk about the lack of treatment better facilities
I know that the sheriff a Franklin County has a market times at
his jail is really the only
treatment facility in Franklin County
absolutely correct chef Tom it had it right on the head our house is a
correction
are being used as Rd toxin treatment facilities the only
treatment in detox facility in our area is that veterans administration
and that's only for veterans it's important that it's there for them but
we need it for the rest the population to make sure that
when people need help they can get it immediately sometimes that window
is only an hour or two or three hours that a and attic will
finally come to that realization they need help and if they don't get that
help they're gonna be back using again the next day
in their gonna commit crimes many times to support that habit so
it really makes a walk have cost sense
and it's really I i called smart on crime if you give good treatment you
give good counseling
you gonna save it at the other end in incarceration costs
in in the cost to people being victimized a very really gym
is there a breaking and entering into a home a car
a burglary a convenience store robbery a bank robbery
that's not OPI related idea say that if he s
anybody in law enforcement about those crimes in their communities they would
say
and struck related in if we can reduce the amount of addiction
we get people helping to reduce at the victimization a people and
in communities I know education getting
schools involved from a really early aged early lower grades
has been something that's been talked about a lot I think it's essential
I think that on keeping people arm
away from on those or puedes in really educate people but the wrice
on everyday people go to doctors in dentists any get prescribed
mom in my paper cassette it could be oxy cotton
for could be an era baccara to take
to the ever ask have you ever been addicted to cigarettes or alcohol or
other drugs
we have to do a much better job up using
our pain killers as on last resort not a first resort.
on opium span here for five thousand years
it's been addicted for five thousand years in a pic when big pharmacy came in
they plied these things and said there won't be any abuse there won't be any
misuse but in fact millions of people got hooked on these
in there good people that never thought that they would perform an addiction
but what happened GM in the marketing up heroin was that
on not only has been made cheaper in pure
them if it's notable so that everybody who
but kinda hot on these pills then gravitates to snorting it and within two
weeks
to two months there injecting so nobody ever thinks are going to be a heroin
addict that was
as you know you grow up it was it was something that was very temple
but now it's a way for people to take your that addiction that started with
the pill
it is an illness but but it is a crime and there there is that approach you as
well law enforcement
i no one at the discussion points at the at the Greenfield a minute
GCC was the money the governor's put forward in his 2015 budget
think it's 2.7 million dollars to add some additional drug courts five drug
courts
across the state also were courts that will deal specifically with mental
health issues
it's all intertwined how important would that be
do you think to addressing some law enforcement side this
I think the governor's shifting the conversation away from
we spend I think 1.2 bil what 1.1 billion dollars for incarceration
corrections
is shifting money away so we don't have to incarcerate people
the 2.7 is a nice beginning but really chip in the bucket
because to have quality treatment programs quality
after-care recovery programs it's gonna take a lot more resources so
I think we're really working in the tens of millions of dollars
to start addressing this in to make sure that you know whether
your 1850 and that we treat you just like
if you had a heart attack or if he had diabetes that
you wouldn't delay treatment you wouldn't say can you wait three weeks or
three months or six months
you'd say we gotta help you right now if we put you in the ER
but then we put you in some particular program after which so
so I think that's the conversation and that's the ship
wanna people came I'm to Greenfield Community College because they care
about it
they've been impacted their loved ones have died or they've been addicted
and now I think people see it what it is its a tech community
arm disaster when it rips apart families and communities
in there are good people that never thought they'd be addicted but now they
are
and now it's up to us to figure out the best way to kinda work on it
take a minute put some personal perspective on this for us if you will
you're a prosecutor but your family guy you work with some state police and
police investigators it
think they've seen some pretty tough stuff they're they're pretty grizzled
men and women sometimes
but well what do you see what's the reaction what's the sense
in your office with these investigators as they see what's happening in they see
these
these deaths many times I've young people right now RC troopers caught
every unattended death
every overdosed AC and they see the family and the worst of times
here they've lost a loved one and so that the heart
up a prosecutor and avalon Airport because up to that family
we know that it's a up completely preventable tragedy
in Seoul I think what you'll find from almost every prosecutor to a tee
every wire force min is that we won't get them the help they need so we don't
have to
put a a body tag on you know that toe tag
that says here is the deceased in the morgue that's the last tag we ever wanna
put on
an individual we want to make sure that people can get this help
in get over the stigma I think families have to understand
that their is not a stigma to doing this
bring your child to a hospital bring into
a place where they can get help armed police wanna help
people get there they don't want to end up arresting that
that young man I yet that young woman for breaking into a store to support
their habit
so I think there's been a fundamental shift in law enforcement
in corrections and I think and prosecution so that we can
start to get people to help they'd need in not resort to
on you know long-term incarceration
northwestern district attorney David solvent thanks for spending some time
with respect to
have me