Parents and friends are cordially invited to attend an evening presentation at Wilby High School on Wednesday, May 30th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm:
The opioid epidemic is a national crisis that has hit Connecticut hard. Over 900 people died from opioid overdoses in 2016 in Connecticut and in 2017 the Connecticut Medical Examiner’s Office reported a total of 1038 opioid overdoses. In response, the Waterbury Board of Education, the Waterbury Department of Public Health, the Mayor’s Task Force Against Substance Abuse and the Central Naugatuck Valley Opioid Workgroup have teamed to invite the United States Attorney’s Office to present an educational event for our entire school community offered by the Heroin Education Action Team (H.E.A.T.).
The program will discuss the statistics and the serious problem with abuse of prescription painkillers, which many times leads users to purchase the cheaper alternative, heroin. However, the heroin seen on the streets now is almost always laced with fentanyl, an even more potent and lethal drug which is prevalent in most overdose deaths. In response to the spike in the number of overdose deaths in Connecticut, in 2016 the United States Attorney’s Office began prosecuting drug dealers whose drugs contributed to the death of the victim(s).