“I think the average citizen doesn’t think it has an impact on them,” said Sheriff Stuart. “That’s part of the struggle we’re trying to overcome, and part of our community and outreach efforts because I’ve had so many parents and family members that have lost people to this narcotic that have said flat out ‘I never thought this would happen to me’.”
In one weekend last fall, two people died in six separate overdose incidents in only 12 hours in the county. Most heroin users don’t start by picking up a needle. They usually start by simply taking a prescription pill.
“Part of the struggle we are seeing is with prescription medication as a gateway drug. We’ve established the prescription drug take back boxes across the county and to date we’ve taken over 15,000 pounds of narcotics off the streets of Anoka County as a result of the boxes. The reason that becomes relevant is because we’ve created a society where kids are told you can’t sleep take a pill, you can’t wake up take a pill, if you can’t concentrate take a pill, so they have this mindset if it’s in a tablet form it’s not going to hurt them. In fact it is a distinct and proven gateway to heroin,” said Sheriff Stuart.
The county board is now teaming up with law enforcement, as they work to increase education efforts to youth and their parents.
“I think we’ve learned over time that prevention makes the most sense,” said Anoka County Board Chair Rhonda Sivarajah. “It certainly saves the heartache and the deaths that we’ve seen. The overdoses. It’s really about making sure people are healthy within our communities. It impacts not just the jail system and the correction system, but it impacts the child protection system as well and we want to make sure that we are getting ahead of it and looking at that needed prevention piece.”
The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office recently partnered with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office on a new public awareness campaign that is fighting against opioid use.
