Although the large-scale prescription pill ring allegedly operated by Riverhead physician assistant Michael Troyan was not the biggest the county has seen in recent years, it underscores a troubling fact: In the ongoing opioid crisis, Suffolk is disproportionately affected. READ
The North Fork Alliance, a local anti-substance abuse group, will hold a presentation about drug trends at the Mattituck High School on Tuesday, at 7 p.m.
The lecture will focus on electronic cigarettes and their use as vaporizers for marijuana oil, but will also include information on other substances from heroin to bath salts, said John Corbett of Maryhaven Center of Hope in Riverhead, who will give the presentation.
Mr. Corbett, a state-credentialed alcohol and substance abuse counselor, said substance abuse has lead to deaths on the North Fork.
“In regards to this, I’m going to allow a question and answer session,” Mr. Corbett said. “We want to know how bad things are in the community.”
The Mattituck School District is working on banning electronic cigarettes as drug paraphernalia because students are revamping the device to smoke marijuana undetected in hallways, Mr. Corbett said. That, he added, is a problem throughout Long Island, New York and New Jersey.
Mr. Corbett, the clinical case coordinator at Maryhaven, an adolescent outpatient facility, said he looks forward to sharing a real world perspective on substance abuse.
“Adolescents are the group of people that don’t believe in consequences and try everything,” he said. “That’s the nature of the adolescent. They’re very peer-influenced and chance things to outdo one another. They believe bad things only happen to other people.”