Next Wednesday night, October 5, residents have the opportunity to learn from those who have been there about the scourge of the opioid epidemic. Whether or not a person is directly affected by a parent's, child's, sibling's, or friend's misuse of drugs, prescribed or otherwise, this 7 pm meeting at Edmond Town Hall will clarify for many just how close to home the devastation of opioid abuse strikes.

Heroin and fentanyl, less expensive options to prescription pain killers, are becoming the choice for urban and suburban users - and resulting in deaths in more than two dozen communities in Connecticut this past year.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut reports 444 deaths statewide related to overdose; of those, 40 are attributed to heroin; 119 to a combination of heroin and fentanyl (both synthetic pain killers); and 30 to fentanyl alone. Oxycodone overdose contributed to 52 death the first half of this year, with various other drugs and combinations of drugs responsible for other deaths. By the year's end, the number of drug related overdose deaths is expected to reach 888 - a number that is more than two and a half times the number of recorded deaths just four years ago.

Newtown is among those towns experiencing the loss of life to opioids. While the number of actual deaths related to drug overdoses per year in Newtown remains in the single digits, the number of lives damaged by drug abuse is exponentially larger.

Drug abuse is not a new thing, regardless of socioeconomic conditions. What is new is that more people are willing to speak out. More people are willing to share their personal experiences as users and as people who have been on the sidelines of seeing a valued human being deteriorate due to opioid abuse. The frustrations, tears, fears, and despair of those plunged into the drug culture willingly or not is now resulting in voices that demand attention.

Community leaders agreed at an August 31 gathering that drug addiction needs to be recognized as a disease, treated as such, and the stigma attached to drug addiction must be overcome in order to address this issue.

By bringing speakers with first-hand knowledge in front of the community, attendees will see that addiction is at home in every kind of home. Putting the face of friends and neighbors to the losses and victories could result in actions to address opioid abuse that are more readily supported.

Who abuses opioids? Where is it happening and why? What can be done to help those suffering from physical and mental pain, and what can be done to assist the addicted?

If you have doubts as to the reality of drug abuse in this picturesque village; if you care about the quality of life for every resident; if you have questions - or answers - about this epidemic, mark the calendar for this coming Wednesday evening.

As with other problems, education and knowledge are the first steps toward finding a solution.