Judge Kathleen McCann of Livonia’s 16th District Court has personally witnessed the horrors of opioid abuse in her community, observing it escalate to epidemic proportions.
“As a sobriety court judge, I see the extraordinary pain and effort that our participants expend to finally be free of their dependency on opiates and heroin,” she said.
“Unfortunately, I have had to close too many files when parents bring me a death certificate because their child overdosed before we could reach them.”
McCann’s sits on the advisory board of the new Northwest Wayne County Chapter of Families Against Narcotics, which held its first meeting at the Life Church annex building recently in Canton. Monthly meetings are scheduled to begin in May.
Families Against Narcotics, or FAN, is a grassroots organization dedicated to eliminating the stigma associated with addiction and providing families struggling with the disease the support and resources they need.
Its membership includes people and families affected by addiction, concerned citizens, law enforcement, and leaders in healthcare, education, business, and religion.
Founded in 2007, FAN originated in Macomb County, and now has 12 chapters throughout Michigan, including a chapter in Oakland County that is divided into nine regions, each with its own monthly meeting. Until now, there has been no FAN chapter in Wayne County.
“The public and the schools are still not in tune with how pervasive this problem is, and how young and vulnerable the population is that is being targeted,” said McCann. “Families Against Narcotics will open another avenue of information, coordination and resources to communities that are very much in need.”
Judge Linda Davis of the 41B District Court in Clinton Township was the keynote speaker at the chapter launch meeting.
Davis is the president and founder of FAN.
She also chairs Gov. Rick Snyder’s Prescription Drug and Opioid Abuse Commission, and is the driving force behind Hope Not Handcuffs, a program that enlists police departments and volunteers to help addicts seeking recovery find immediate treatment.
Davis is a frequent speaker on the subject of addiction and the opioid epidemic.
The federal Centers for Disease Control recently reported that more than 52,000 people died from drug overdose in 2015, and approximately 33,000 of those deaths were due to opioid pain pills and heroin. Michigan has been hard hit by the epidemic, losing 1960 residents to drug overdose in 2015, a 13 percent increase over 2014 numbers.
“Addiction is a family disease, and it is devastating our community,” said Lauren Rousseau, president of the Northwest Wayne County FAN Chapter. “We are losing an unprecedented number of young people to this illness, and families need resources, education, and support.”
Rousseau, a law professor at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, is a long-time resident of Livonia and is personally acquainted with the destruction that heroin can cause.
From 2010-12, she was legal guardian for a young man, also a Livonia resident, who struggled with heroin addiction and ultimately died at the age of 19.
More information is available at the chapter’s web page:?www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org/northwest-wayne.
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