Manchester officials will deploy a Rapid Overdose Response Team after police broke up an alleged drug trafficking operation earlier this week. Twenty-two people are facing charges following an investigation from law enforcement inside and outside the state.
At a press conference Thursday morning, Manchester Police Lieutenant Matt Barter said they are concerned overdoses could spike if people buy drugs from new dealers.
“So, if you have individuals who are using a substance supplied by a dealer, there's consistency there over time,” Barter said. “If they change what substance they're using and who they're getting it from, they don't know what's in there. That's the problem with illicit substances in general.”
Manchester Director of Public Health Anne Thomas said city officials will be working with people from outreach organizations they've collaborated with in the past, such as Catholic Medical Center's Healthcare for the Homeless, Waypoint NH and Families in Transition, to quell anticipated overdose spikes.
“We’re going to be able to use these staff in a new way and pull them out in these unprecedented times. It might be evenings, it might be weekends – when we’re starting to see irregular patterns in the overdoses,” Thomas said. “This is something we’re going to stick with over the next year, and we’ll be monitoring and reporting out data on a regular basis.”
City officials will share information about high-risk areas with community organizations to help target resources. Barter said that could include educating and advocating for safe use, as well as connecting people with treatment.
Hope for New Hampshire Recovery is a support group and community center for people with addiction. They’re one of the organizations that will receive alerts about high-risk areas in the coming days.
Hope for New Hampshire Recovery Director Keith Howard spoke at the press conference, holding up a package of Narcan, a drug used to treat people who are overdosing, while discussing overdose resources available at his organization.
“My goal is that every drug user in the city will find recovery. But they have to be alive to be able to find that,” Howard said.
A study from the American Journal of Public Health found a relationship between large-scale drug busts and overdoses but did not prove that drug busts are the cause of a spike in overdoses. This finding is consistent with other studies. But a spokesperson for the Manchester Health Department said this recent drug bust is an opportunity for the city to focus on substance abuse disorder outreach.
