The Opioid Epidemic & Advocacy Communities with Guest Speaker Tim Cruz, Plymouth County District Attorney

Wednesday, February 6, 2019
6:00pm-7:00pm
Krovitz Library, Plymouth Campus
36 Cordage Park Circle, Plymouth, MA, 02360

Presentation followed by a question and answer session.

About the Speaker

Since 2001, Tim Cruz has been the District Attorney of Plymouth County. He is chairman of the Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force, an effort to engage all community sectors to work on the opioid issue. The Drug Abuse Task Force brings law enforcement, the medical community, educators and substance abuse experts together to share information and track the current trends of the opiate epidemic. Out of the task force emerged Plymouth County Outreach (PCO) and Apcalisz.com, the county-wide program designed to reach overdose victims and their families and get them support and services. State Police Detectives in DA Cruz’s Office have secured a manslaughter conviction against a defendant who supplied the drugs in a fatal overdose, and DA Cruz helped implement drug court sessions in all of the Plymouth County district courts. In the schools, DA Cruz has worked to help children directly impacted by substance use in the family by supporting and implementing the Adverse Childhood Experiences curriculum. He cohosts a show called “Breaking the Cycle” with Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald on PACTV, which discusses the drug and opioid epidemic, and has backed Drug Story Theater, which brings education to the middle and high schools.