Revere High School hosted a presentation for the prevention of heroin and prescription drug abuse which was headed by several community members that have personal experience with drug abuse.

Revere Community C.A.R.E organized the presentation, which took place on April 20. C.A.R.E.’s president Karen Smik was in charge of creating a panel of people to answer questions for the presentation.

“It [was] a panel rather than just one individual. [It was] comprised of individuals who have knowledge and/or personal experience concerning this issue.  The panel [consisted] of a judge, a police officer, someone from the county coroner’s office, a pharmacist, a recovering addict, the parents of a young man who died last year of a heroin overdose and representatives from New Directions, a facility which provides quality life-changing treatment to chemically dependent adolescents and their families dealing with emotional, behavioral or psychiatric needs,” Smik said.

Bath Township Police Chief Michael McNeely explained the main focus of the presentation.

“The main focus of the presentation is to inform the public regarding the serious health epidemic in our community.  The abuse of heroin and prescription medications are killing people across all demographic populations,” McNeely said.

“We will help the community by creating opportunities, such as this presentation, to increase awareness and dialogue among stakeholders,” Superintendent Matthew Montgomery said.

McNeely explained how the Revere community as a whole can help fight drug abuse.

“The Revere community can assist with this public health crisis by keeping aware of current issues and discussing these with family members.  There are many organizations from the health community to law enforcement willing to assist those with drug abuse problems,” McNeely said.

The last time Revere hosted a panel such as this one was two years ago. Smik explained how she believes this panel has impacted the community.

“[It is] hard to measure.  I know the panel presentation C.A.R.E. did two years ago was extremely well received and it impacted those in attendance but beyond that, I do not know.  Hopefully those parents went home and talked to their children and continued to talk with them about the dangers of prescription drug abuse and the use of heroin,” Smik said.

With the help of the Revere School System and the Bath Police Department, C.A.R.E’s anti-drug initiatives work to help Revere be a drug free community.