Grants Fund Anti-Opiate Education in Mass. Middle Schools

Attorney General Maura Healey announced the grants, which total $700,000 statewide, at a small gathering Tuesday in Collins Middle School's library in Salem.

"In the last six years, the number of fatal opiate-related overdoses in Massachusetts have increased over 450 percent," Healey said. "We lost 2,000 people last year to this, and the toll continues to mount. That doesn't begin to account for the number of folks who were in recovery or were addicted who were revived and brought back to life through Narcan."

Healey spoke alongside a poster depicting dire statistics--90 percent of drug-addicted adults started using under the age of 18, and half of them started under the age of 15.

Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll emphasized those percentages when speaking to a couple dozen middle school students in attendance.

"When you look at these numbers right behind me...50 percent of kids start under 15. That's you guys, that's your age. There isn't much we can say directly to you other than, 'don't try it,'" she said. "Don't put yourself in a position to take away all the positive actions that are going toward making you as successful as you can be. One pill can really stop that."

Officials were quick to point out that the preventative education programs the grants will fund aren't a rehashing of D.A.R.E.--the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program that saw wide use throughout public schools in the 1980s and '90s then fizzled out.

"A lot of the D.A.R.E. programs were just like, 'just say no to things,'" said Paula Dobrow, director of nursing and health services at Collins. "This isn't really about that, about wagging your finger and saying, 'you're a terrible child for doing these things.' It's a series of lessons based on decision-making and how you make choices, how you gather information to make those choices so you're making informed choices."

Organizations in Essex County picked up $106,800 from the program. That includes $20,000 for Salem, $15,000 for Marblehead and $6,300 for Beverly.

Those gathered in Salem also heard from two other speakers--Collins sixth-grader Destinee DeJarnette and Andrew McCall, an Attleboro resident who fought drug addiction for a good part of his teenage life.

"My drug use started in fifth grade, where a friend offered me a little thing called a joint," McCall said. "That little joint ended up turning me into a 16-year-old kid who was homeless in Boston with a needle sticking out of my arm."

Since going sober in the past five years, McCall said he has worked with countless addicts, as well as those in recovery.

"I've been to so many funerals and wakes of young kids, adults... It's crazy," McCall said. "I've been to maybe 80 of kids I knew--kids I went to school with, kids I went to programs with, kids I used drugs with."

Looking at a poster showing locations where the cash is going, McCall displayed a positive outlook.

"$700,000 is going to save a lot of lives," he said.

Destinee, just becoming a teenager herself, has been clean her whole life and plans to stay that way. Her reason why: her mother, who works as a court officer in Salem.

"Almost daily, she comes home with stories... heartbreaking stories of people completely lost in their life," Destinee said. "They pretty much forget how to think on their own with clear logic that others can understand. This leaves families with heartbreak and, sometimes, fatal tragedies."

Destinee said that's a message that children must hear.

"Hiding the truth," she said, "or not talking about these risks with children my age won't keep us safe."

Contact Salem reporter Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.

PROGRAM TARGETS

Salem Public Schools: $20,000

Beverly Public Schools: $6,300

Gloucester Public Schools: $9,600

Marblehead Public Schools: $15,000

City of Haverhill: $8,400

City of Newburyport: $14,500

District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett: $13,000

North Andover Public Schools: $20,000

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