By Christina Leslie | Correspondent

Two sets of community leaders – one at ease in the secular arena, the other more at home in the spiritual realm – have joined forces to assist the residents of Brick Township combat drug abuse.

The first public informational meeting about the new initiative was held March 24 in Brick’s Visitation Parish and led by Brick Township police officers Sgt. James Kelly, Sgt. Jason Shepherd and Lt. Brian Murphy. The officers explained the “Cops and Clergy” program and other initiatives designed to prevent drug abuse in the town and effectively treat those already wrestling with addiction.

Father Edward Blanchett, pastor of Visitation Parish, noted, “Since the opioid crisis is so serious in Ocean County, it is important to make people aware that, even with Narcan, it’s still a danger.”

The workshop was one of the first activities where the township police teamed with the Brick Ministerium, an interreligious group of clergy from the Catholic parishes of Visitation, Epiphany and St. Dominic, as well as from the town’s Lutheran, Jewish, Baptist, Presbyterian and other faith communities. The “Cops and Clergy” program teams the Brick Police Department with these houses of worship in order to work to improve the community and prevent drug addiction.

The three officers, all of whom admitted having been affected by addiction through a friend or family member, recommended a number of practical steps that citizens might use to help keep drugs out of the hands of those destined to misuse them. Seventy percent of crime is associated with drugs, they stated, and many burglars’ first priority is to raid a home’s medicine cabinet. A visiting family member, a cleaning service or those walking through a home during an open house all might seek prescription drugs or painkillers for their own use.

The officers recommended those with unused human or pet prescriptions deposit them into one of the department’s “Drug Take-Back Boxes” for safe disposal rather than into a regular trash receptacle or flushing them down the toilet to be absorbed in the general water system. Last year, 1,700 pounds of prescription medicines were safely collected in the town’s boxes, located at police substations and hospitals.

In the town’s public and private schools, education about drugs begins with the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in grade five and the Youth Prevention Coalition in the middle schools. High school students undergo the “Not Even Once” program, an interactive course that discusses the dangers of opioid use before they leave for college or the workforce. Among activities during the three-day interactive course, created by the Manchester Police Department, the students view videos, take surveys on drug knowledge and meet a local recovering addict to learn of her struggles to stay clean.

Another effective program offered by the Brick Township Police is the “Blue HART” (Heroin Addiction Recovery Treatment) program, a no-cost, no-questions-asked offer of drug abuse assistance wherein an addict can walk into the police station on any given Thursday, admit to a drug abuse problem, and, within an hour, be driven by an officer directly to admission in a long-term, residential treatment center for free. The department has found its overdose and death rates slowly sinking as the program takes hold, and other area towns are adopting similar programs.

Two members of St. Dominic Parish reflected on the information learned and how their parish might join the effort. Sharon McIlwain said, “I am involved in starting a recovery ministry at the parish. An alliance with the police and clergy is important.”

Debbie Tobias added, “I needed more information about what the police are doing. I am a psychotherapist, and I am stepping back a bit from my practice to have time to do this for the parish.”

Dale Zanetti, Visitation Parish’s Adult Faith Formation director, concluded, “We are not just here for spiritual ministries, but for secular ones and hospitality when a person is feeling low and looking for solace.”