PARIS — While the main focus for the newly formed Western Maine Addiction Task Force was Oxford Hills, Rumford and the River Valley also want to get into the mix to battle growing heroin and opiate problems.

Sheri Blodgett and Heather Conley, both of Rumford, attended with about 33 others at Wednesday evening’s task force meeting hosted at Paris Town Hall. They’ve become community activists after witnessing firsthand the harm addiction to heroin and other drugs can cause. They recently formed a Facebook page called “River Valley Fight Against Heroin.”

Blodgett’s son and stepson are both addicted to the narcotic and she decided she could no longer sit on the sidelines, she said.

“I am sick of people dying,” she said. “I don’t go to bed without my phone. I’d panic. I couldn’t imagine getting that phone call.”

Conley admitted she’s an addict, even though she’s been sober for 10 years. But she’s witnessing her sister die right before her eyes, she said.

“I am watching my loved ones walk around with scabs on their faces and their bodies, killing themselves daily. I can’t do it anymore,” she said.

She’s aware there are options for them, but some don’t have insurance, others don’t know where to turn and some are afraid of retribution from law enforcement because they’re using drugs.

Paris police Lt. Jeff Lange, who spearheaded forming the task force, said that’s exactly what the program he wants to bring to Oxford County battles. The idea behind the program is an addict comes to the Police Department and hands in their drugs and/or paraphernalia. They won’t be arrested but instead be paired with an “angel” who will help them get to counseling to begin facing their addiction.

Lange said he’s putting the call out on social media for people to turn in any type of drugs — not just pharmaceuticals as in the past — to local police stations at any time with no questions asked.

Rumford Police Chief Stacy Carter was also in attendance to figure out how that town and surrounding ones in the River Valley can join the battle against heroin. It’s a problem he says is just as bad, if not worse, than the one in Paris. He promised to set up a similar forum in his town and will invite all current task force members and potential members in his area.

“We need to continue the effort. We need to expand it in all areas of the county and work collaboratively,” he said.

Carter suggested he, local police chiefs and Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant get together to discuss policy regarding drug addicts. Lange piggybacked on that idea, saying they should also have a Skype meeting with the chief at the Gloucester, Mass., department where the angel program originated.

Several individuals, including those in health care, law enforcement and addict Patrick Valeri of Otisfield want to get Narcotics Anonymous meetings going locally. Valeri also wants a more in-depth class to teach students about the dangers of drugs and how addictive they can be. He first started using opiates when he was 16 and later moved on to heroin, he said.

“There’s kids, I can tell you from personal experience, who are dabbling with heroin in the high school,” he said about Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris. “I’ve been clean since the last meeting (on Aug. 6) and thank God.”

On Wednesday evening, he joined the legislative subcommittee on the task force and will soon travel to Augusta with Gallant, state Sen. Jim Hamper, R-Oxford, and others to try to bring changes at the state level. 

Jim Douglas of Healthy Oxford Hills shared an evolving road map for the task force’s main goal of reducing opioid drug abuse. This, in turn, will reduce crime, decrease health care costs, eliminate employment problems from drug use and decrease deaths resulting from drug overdoses. He noted it’s part of an online living platform he’d like to place under the umbrella of Oxford County Wellness Collaborative, which includes partners from Bridgton and others outside the county. He wants this initiative to last for decades and not fizzle out once the going gets tough, he said.

“It helps us stay on track and helps us stay focused on the end result that we want so we don’t get derailed,” Douglas said.

Also in attendance was attorney Sarah Glynn, who has been working closely with District Attorney Andrew Robinson, Assistant Attorney General David Fisher and Loretta Sanborn from the Maine Pretrail Program, to set up an informal drug court system in the county, since it won’t be officially funded. The goal is develop a resource team similar to drug courts to help people battling addictions. Sanborn works with people who are either out on bail, pretrial release or probation and helps monitor their court and counseling dates, among other things.

“(We) work with them every week to try to get them to lead a better life and show the court system that they’re not just people who are criminals but they do want to live a better life,” she said.

Gallant said Sanborn saves his department around $584,000 a year. He said there are 32 people out on pretrial release, which would cost the county that much to house all of them in jail.

Fisher said drug courts have been tremendously useful in helping people treat addictions.

“The courts are aware now prosecuting people who are addicts is not the way to solve the problem,” he said.

Tamara Ben-Kiki, chairwoman of the Oxford Hills Restorative Justice Circle, couldn’t agree with Fischer more. Her group works in conjunction with Restorative Justice Institute of Maine, which finds alternatives to punishment for those who have broken the law.

“When harm has been done, it causes ripples of impact — the individual, the family, the community — and there’s a lot of pain around it,” she said. “It allows the wrongdoer . . . to address the harm in the way that makes sense. The legal system often takes away power to repair that harm.”

One thing everyone was in agreement with is that it will take many to battle the heroin problem.

“It’s going to take a community to do this. One or two people can’t do this,” Blodgett said. “It’s not going to be overnight.”

Another task force meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23, at Paris Town Hall, 33 Market Square.

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