Experts detail trends in drug use

Health-care professionals and law enforcement officials highlighted current trends in substance use at a town hall meeting Oct. 24 at the West Milford Public Library.

Samantha Neville, a license clinical social worker with Passaic County Hope One, said the drug supply now is mostly fentanyl as well as Xylazine, known as tranq.

She emphasized that Narcan always should be administered for a suspected overdose even though Xylazine is not an opioid.

Justin Winfrey, coordinator of the Passaic County Overdose Fatality Review Team, said 95 percent of the more than 80 cases he has looked at involve fentanyl.

”For those of you who do not know, you only need this tiny bit - two of these little specks - that’s all it takes for it to kill somebody.”

Derek Ressa, director of special services in the West Milford School District, said students are vaping and using marijuana, to which they have easy access.

School counselors report that students don’t realize the impact of marijuana use because the concentration of THC is much higher than in the past, he noted.

Passaic County Sheriff Officer Chris Christides agreed that vaping is huge in schools along with use of painkillers.

Justin Di Maio, a West Milford chiropractor, urged more education for parents and students about painkillers.

Susan Woomer, clinical director at the Hope Institute, which offers addiction treatment in West Milford, said alcohol use is increasing among people in their 30s and 40s who are using it to cope with anxiety and depression.

Opioid use still is common and frequent, she added.

Retail dispensaries

Asked if having 10 cannabis dispensaries in West Milford has made marijuana more available to students, Mayor Michele Dale pointed out the security measures and double-check process used by the dispensaries to admit customers.

”They’ve done a really good job at ensuring that it’s a 21-and-over,” she said, contrasting that to liquor stores, which admit everyone.

In addition, retail cannabis is a highly regulated industry, she added.

West Milford Police Capt. Anthony Parrello said, “We’re not seeing kids going into these facilities.”

However, there still is a lot of illegal marijuana available, he said.

Dustin Baarck, founder and chief executive of the Hope Institute, pointed out that 60 percent of people admitted for drug treatment in New Jersey are Caucasian.

”It is in our backyards. It’s everywhere. It’s no longer an inner-city problem. Fentanyl and alcohol are everywhere,” he said.

Dale praised the Passaic County Health Department for bringing services to its West Milford office at 13 Edgar Drive that it has been providing in the southern part of the county.

”So for the first time in West Milford Township, we’ll have all the down-county resources available up-county,” she said. That includes substance-abuse resources and clinic space.