Susan Stubbs, ServiceNet CEO: “There’s so much heroin in Northampton High School”

NorthAssocAdmin

Here is a YouTube video of the complete 9/17/12 meeting of Northampton’s Committee on Social Services & Veterans Affairs (click for the agenda). This video is 2 hour 10 minutes long and was recorded by Mary Likins.

A discussion of heroin abuse at Northampton High School begins at 1:25:25 on the video. The committee hears from Susan Stubbs and Michael Tremblay of ServiceNet. Tremblay reports that there’s “a big uptick in clients between the ages of 18 and 24 in the last year…a lot of heroin addicts…they’re coming from middle class, upper middle class families, and it has made them homeless…” 

Stubbs continues, “If there’s one thing that I lie awake at night worrying about it’s heroin. The police chief came to speak to [the] Rotary Club…and I raised my hand and said, ‘You know, there’s so much heroin in Northampton High School. How is it that we can let this happen? The kids know where it’s coming from. They know how to get it. It’s there, it’s kind of open.’ And he said, ‘we don’t have enough time or money to address it’. And I said, ‘Oh my God, if there’s one thing that should be at the very top of the list for our police force, it would be dealing with it.'”
Additional discussion about heroin in the schools begins at 2:03:50. Use headphones or speakers to enhance the audio.

See also:

Angela Plassmann: “Combating Drug Abuse in Our Schools” (10/16/10)

Northampton Prevention Presentation – October 2010

Gazette: “Ward 3 hopefuls air override, drugs” (10/20/09)
“If there were a drug problem, I’d be happy to have the City Council talk about it, but I really don’t think there is a substantial drug problem in Northampton,” Reckman said.

Plassmann, who mentioned that one of her teenage sons told her he came into contact with drugs in a Northampton High School bathroom, said she thought it was time to confront the issue and stop “sweeping the problem under the rug.”