Abington forum to focus on suburban drug problems

By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
(Originally published Nov. 3, 2007)

ABINGTON — Mary D'Eramo stood in her kitchen, phone book in hand, wondering who to call to get help for her then-heroin-addicted daughter.
 She remembers standing in her front yard, looking around, wondering who she could talk with.
 “There was nothing out there,” she recalled.
 Now, four years later, with her daughter in recovery, D'Eramo is working to make sure no one else goes through what she and her family did.
 D'Eramo and others are sponsoring a forum in town to highlight the dangers of OxyContin and heroin — and what families can do if their child falls victim.
 The forum will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Abington High School Paul Smith music room. It is sponsored by Learn to Cope, a parents support group, the Abington Rotary Club and Abington Police Department.
 “People don't like to think it can happen in their town,” D'Eramo said. “The fact is it does happen and we have to be aware, we have to be proactive.”
 The Abington event is one of two upcoming forums in the area designed to draw attention to the growing problem of OxyContin and heroin use, particularly among the young.
  In Brockton, the Plymouth County district attorney's office, Learn to Cope and other groups are sponsoring a program Nov. 28 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Massasoit Community College conference center called “Generations Rx: Children in the Medicine Cabinet.”
 Last month, in Hanover, the Hanover Alliance for the Prevention of Substance Abuse sponsored a forum at the South Shore Vocational Technical High School lecture hall.
 The Enterprise, in a four-day series called “Wasted Youth,” detailed the deadly toll opiate addiction has taken on the region.
 An examination of death certificates in 28 local communities by the paper found 74 people died of opiate-related overdoses, including heroin, between Jan. 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2006.
 Abington Police Chief David Majenski and the new school superintendent, Peter Schafer, are working with parents to help highlight the problem, she said.
 Speakers at the forum will include a recovering addict, the sibling of a recovering addicts, officials from treatment programs and state officials.