County gets funds to fight heroin epidemic

$200,000 to further police overdose investigations

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Nassau County will receive a $200,00 grant to further its fight against Long Island’s heroin crisis. The money, secured by State Sens. Kemp Hannon and Jack Martins, will be used to assist police in investigating fatal heroin and opioid overdoses.

County officials said 44 people died of heroin overdoses in Nassau County in 2013, and another 115 died of prescription drug overdoses.

A county spokesman said the money would be used to increase police personnel when investigating overdoses. When an overdose is reported, detectives from the narcotics and electronics squad investigate the case, with the assistance of an intelligence analyst. In the event of a fatal overdose, a homicide detective is also assigned.

The county lauded recent arrests of alleged heroin dealers made by the NCPD in response to two overdoses earlier this year. In April, after a 20-year-old from Massapequa died of an apparent heroin overdose, police arrested 21-year-old Aquan Brown of Amityville and 24-year-old Shantiqua Brown of Patchogue.

Twenty-six-year-old Erica Fink of Franklin Square was arrested in response to a fatal overdose of a 30-year-old Baldwin man in July. “Our detectives are working daily to take down dealers, stop the flow of drugs into our neighborhoods and catch those responsible for the death of our young people,” said County Executive Ed Mangano.

Official say they also have battled the heroin epidemic by furthering education and awareness. Since late 2012, the county has hosted more than 56 training seminars to teach residents how to use Narcan, or naloxone, an opioid reversal agent that prevents deadly overdoses. Residents are given Narcan at the end of the seminar. All of the county’s EMS vehicles and police patrol cars are equipped with Narcan.

“Funding our police so they have the tools they need to investigate fatal overdoses is another important way to combat this deadly scourge,” said Hannon.