Springfield’s Project ACTION confront drug problem

Stephanie Thompson told a roomful of people Tuesday afternoon last June’s drug and gang-related shooting in downtown Springfield was the reason they were there.
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150121/NEWS02/701219910

Published January 21, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Springfield’s Project ACTION confront drug problem By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — Stephanie Thompson told a roomful of people Tuesday afternoon last June’s drug and gang-related shooting in downtown Springfield was the reason they were there. Thompson, vice chairwoman of the Springfield Select Board and director of the Springfield Family Center, said that day, as she and Chairman Kristi Morris stood and watched the police activity on Summer Street, and both vowed that the town had to take action. That action is now Project ACTION, Thompson told the police officers, social workers, mental health counselors, teachers and community leaders at the Nolan Murray Center. While Thompson said her professional and political life were heavily involved in Springfield’s future, she said it was because Springfield was her lifelong home that she decided to get involved. Thompson said inaction was not an option for Springfield, a town of 9,300 people that has become a magnet for illegal drugs and gang activity in the past three years. Thompson said in 2014, Springfield Hospital treated about 100 people for drug overdoses. In 2012, she said, 20 percent of all the babies born at Springfield Hospital had opiate exposure, while the statewide average was 3 percent. And the methadone/buprenorphine clinic at the Brattleboro Retreat told Thompson’s group in November that a full half of their patient list came from Springfield. Project ACTION is part of the Shumlin administration’s Project REACH, a coordinated effort to address opiate abuse in the state. Thompson also said Rutland City’s Project Vision had “mentored” the Springfield effort. The organization meeting was designed to get people together and start talking, Thompson told the gathering. By exchanging information, the community can face the drug and crime problem that affects all aspects of life in Springfield. Springfield Police Detective Patrick Call said Springfield, which he described as “an old factory town” was ripe for exploitation by drug-based gangs about three years ago. The first downtown shooting in 2012 was the result of a dispute between a drug dealer and a drug user, he said. The second shooting in 2014, Call said, was between rival drug gangs. The worry is that the shootings and crime will involve innocent bystanders, as was the case in Rutland when Rutland High School student Carly Ferro was killed by a man who was huffing while driving a car, Call said. One Chester teenager, Nolan Rufa, 17, said he started using drugs when he was 12 years old. He said he moved to Vermont nine years ago from New Jersey to get away from drugs and crime. His family, which he said didn’t love or support him. He said he had found his family at The Turning Point, and was finally sober. He said it wasn’t easy, and had gone through treatment programs twice before he really wanted to be sober. Rufa said that as a result he has no friends his own age, since kids his age either want to sell him drugs and want to buy drugs from him. He said he stopped going to school in Vermont because the pressure from drug dealers was “too much for me.” At Turning Point, he said, he can talk to other people about the struggles of recovery. “I found people who cared about me, not the drugs in my pocket,” he said. Rufa said he does his school work at Turning Point, and works at staying sober. “It’s what I’ve got to do,” he said, to applause. Thompson said the 2014 crime statistics in Springfield showed declines in most crime categories. Thompson said that after several years of inaction, the town’s Prevention Coalition was getting involved once again, and would be putting together grant applications to help the town address the issue of prevention. Prevention is really the most effective way to counter drug abuse and addiction, she said. “Hopefully, we’re making progress,” she said, pausing for a second. “We’re definitely making progress.” Project ACTION will meeting monthly, Thompson said, and ACTION’s three subcommittees on the issues of crime and safety, community and housing, and treatment, will also be meeting. Project ACTION’s next meeting is planned for Feb. 17.