Drug summit hunts community solutions

ESPAÑOLA, N.M. (KRQE) - While police have their badges and guns, agencies meeting in Española Thursday said the community may be their real weapon in their war on drugs.

For years the community has kept a secret most people don't talk about on the streets until it's too late: Rio Arriba County has one of highest rates of death from drug overdose deaths in the country.

"We shouldn't wait until they commit a crime and get convicted of something for somebody to say, 'You go over here, and you get treatment," one participant said

On Thursday local, state and federal law enforcement put their cases aside and parked their squad cars to meet with prosecutors and judges looking for a different approach to a problem that has plagued parts of northern New Mexico for generations.

Confined to two rooms the teams came up with nearly 50 solutions and then narrowed that number down to nine.

"It's a day of talking," one team member said. "The outcome is about action."

Many of the top solutions came back to the streets: stop the demand by educating kids; treat the drug abuser's addiction; treat the family, too.

"If that individual happens to be the breadwinner of the family, you got a whole slew of issues now," New Mexico State Police Chief Faron Segotta said.

But most important is make people feel more comfortable about calling police by keeping their reports confidential.

"They may know what's going on next door, and they may see it happen every day, but they're not about to call anybody," Española City Manager Veronica Albin said.

The southeast Albuquerque neighborhood once commonly called the war zone was brought up as an example of how police need to get the community involved for anything to really change.

Other suggested solutions included handling the drug problem as a region by sharing information, resources, and training plus providing more funding, although that idea comes at a time when money is scarce in the state.

Eventually the ideas will be put into recommendations for state legislators.