Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham Talks About New Program For Opioid Addicts

MACOMB COUNTY, MI — The Macomb County Sheriff's Office - along with every police department in Macomb County - is introducing a groundbreaking new program to combat the county's opioid epidemic. Effective Feb. 1, instead of so-called 'arresting away' those with an opioid addiction, Macomb County police departments will pair sufferers seeking help with a special volunteer and work to place them in a treatment/recovery program as part of the new Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I).

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham told Patch "The law enforcement philosophy has been arrest the individual and the problem will go away but that hasn't solved the problem. We're still going to arrest people and take them into custody if they commit crimes but to those individuals that need help, we're here. And once they're done with treatment, they can avoid the criminal process and become productive members of society."

Under the P.A.A.R.I. guidelines, someone with an opioid addiction is now guaranteed help from partner law enforcement offices, although Sheriff Wickersham shares that's unofficially been the standard protocol at the Macomb County' Sheriff's Office all along, adding "I can't recall if any addict has come in but our doors are always open. Just like any other law enforcement office, if citizens come in with an issue we have help. Whether it be they're homeless or have an addiction issue, we'll find some type of location or resource."

And this initiative is most likely here to stay in Macomb County according to Sheriff Wickersham, "We've had several meetings with local law enforcement and we're all on board to start the program. We talked about it as a trial run but once you get a program like this up and running, it'll probably be forever."

As far as the current state of the opioid epidemic in Macomb County, Sheriff Wickersham says "Macomb County has been dealing with this issue for a long time both on the social services side and the law enforcement side. We're doing all we can to get together and get a handle on it."

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