A Small-Town Police Officer’s War on Drugs<br />Whether either one would accept Adams’s card, would call him, would enter treatment,<br />would achieve recovery, would some day relapse, Adams couldn’t predict.<br />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<br />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.<br />Occasionally an addict used similar words even in rebuffing him — ‘‘I don’t think I’m ready yet’’ — a phrase<br />that implicitly acknowledged a problem even as he or she denied one.<br />‘‘I learned fast.’’ The department printed him new business cards: ‘‘The Laconia<br />Police Department recognizes that substance misuse is a disease,’’ they read.<br />In September 2014, Eric Adams became the first person in New England — to his knowledge, the only<br />person in the country — whose job title is prevention, enforcement and treatment coordinator.<br />Still, an overdose death was an overdose death — it would appear in the news that way, and Engler would have heard of it.
