Thursday, September 24, 2015

Gloucester Police Chief Gets After Gateway Drugs

"Taking the opioid crisis to the boardroom; Gloucester police chief urges dialogue with pharmaceutical executives" by Steve Annear Globe Staff  September 17, 2015

Gloucester police, taking an unconventional approach to fighting the state’s opioid epidemic, are imploring people to contact chief executives at five pharmaceutical companies and ask what they’re doing to curb the drug scourge.

In a Facebook post this week that was shared more than 500 times, Police Chief Leonard Campanello listed names and contact information for the leaders at Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Co., and Merck & Co.

The feisty post exhorted the department’s nearly 10,000 followers to reach out directly to the corporate chiefs to start a conversation about drug abuse prevention.

“Now . . . don’t get mad,” Campanello wrote. “Just politely ask them what they are doing to address the opioid epidemic in the United States, and if they realize that the latest data shows almost 80 percent of addicted persons start with a legally prescribed drug that they make.”

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Related: Gloucester chief gets meeting with Pfizer on opioid crisis

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