In the program's first 60 days, it helped 260 Gloucester residents and the city police reported a 23 percent decrease in criminal complaints from the same period in the previous year.
Recently, the Lodi, Ohio, Police Department announced that it would implement a Gloucester-style program starting Jan. 1 -- the first such program in Ohio.
Similar programs, under the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI), have begun to expand nationwide. In just the first four months, 1,260 people were placed in treatment by 34 partner police departments in nine states. These results are nothing short of groundbreaking and illustrate the effectiveness of treatment prioritization.
Local law enforcement agencies and the American people understand that providing treatment for opioid addiction is the only path to ending this epidemic.
If we are serious about saving lives, treatment must be accessible to all.
James Lewis is former issue advocacy director of the Young Democrats of America. Margaret Davis, of Sylvania, has a master's degree in bioethics from Case Western Reserve University.
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