In a follow-up to today’s post What you need to know about teens and heroin use in Massachusetts Upton Daily reached out to the Upton Police and Fire/EMS department and learned there was an apparent heroin overdose of a teen last night in Upton.
Upton Fire/EMS Chief Ron Goodale said, “Heroin is affecting people in large and small communities today. We have seen a marked increase in heroin overdoses in Upton over the past two years. We responded to an apparent heroin overdose involving a 16-year-old just last night. Tragically overdose patients seem to be getting younger and younger, the most common recently being patients who are teenagers or in their early to mid 20’s. Heroin continues to be a dangerous and unpredictable drug that people should avoid. I would encourage anyone to call 911 right away if they think a friend or relative has overdosed on heroin.” When asked if Upton carries a “heroin kit” Chief Goodale said, “Upton has been carrying Narcan for about a year now. Narcan is used to counteract the effects of heroin and other opiate based drugs. “
Upton Police Chief Michael Bradley confirmed heroin overdoses in Upton are similar to other Massachusetts communities which are showing an increase in the drug usage. Chief Bradley said, “Our experience in Upton with heroin overdoses is proportionately consistent with other Massachusetts communities. We have seen overdose cases with age ranges from 16 through 40 years of age. Often times the addiction starts with prescription opiates. As the prescription become harder to get or too expensive, the user will turn to heroin as an alternative. The purity of heroin varies from dose to dose and can easily result in an overdose. ”
“Heroin is readily available in our area and I believe a combination of education, enforcement, and treatment are our best approach to this issue. For many years the use of heroin has been linked to the majority of our house breaks and property crimes in the area,” said Chief Bradley.
Chief Bradley shared a couple of links to educational programs that have taken place in our schools over the past few years which are listed below.
Chris Herren project
http://johnkclements.blogspot.com/2013/01/nipmuc-welcomes-former-nba-player-chris.html
Face2Face – Worcester County Sheriff
http://johnkclements.blogspot.com/2012/05/face2face-with-sheriff-evangelidis.html
BVT held the Face to Face program in April 2013
Here is a link for an article on Narcan – a drug that is carried by our ambulance staff to treat overdose cases.
UPTON DAILY 
Jennifer, do you know why this story is not in the newspapers or Upton’s police website?
Sent from my iPhone
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Debbie, I really couldn’t answer that question. I just stumbled upon it. My brother sent me the PNN video made by the high school students in Plymouth thinking I would want to cover this because of the state wide problem. He thought the video was done well and it would grab the attention of younger readers. During the story building process on the post I reached out to both the fire and pd and Chief Goodale noted we just had a teen overdose. My guess would be Upton Daily focuses primarily on Upton and is a hyper local news source for the town. This is not the type of news which is enjoyable to report, but it’s important to make parents aware of what is available to the kids in town.