A Small-Town Police Officer’s War on Drugs
Whether either one would accept Adams’s card, would call him, would enter treatment,
would achieve recovery, would some day relapse, Adams couldn’t predict.
The reason for that is’’ — Engler paused and crossed his arms — ‘‘since we have been in the so-called heroin epidemic in New Hampshire, I don’t believe there has
been an instance in the Lakes Region, in Belknap County, where we have had a tragic story involving the son or daughter of someone from a prominent family.
Occasionally an addict used similar words even in rebuffing him — ‘‘I don’t think I’m ready yet’’ — a phrase
that implicitly acknowledged a problem even as he or she denied one.
‘‘I learned fast.’’ The department printed him new business cards: ‘‘The Laconia
Police Department recognizes that substance misuse is a disease,’’ they read.
In September 2014, Eric Adams became the first person in New England — to his knowledge, the only
person in the country — whose job title is prevention, enforcement and treatment coordinator.
Still, an overdose death was an overdose death — it would appear in the news that way, and Engler would have heard of it.
