Susan Terhune sat quietly at one corner of the crowded conference table and listened to Barrington officials discuss their plan to address the opioid crisis in town. 

She watched the slides describing the number of people in Barrington who have overdosed. She checked out a brochure offering helpful information to families impacted by opioids. She listened to the challenges fire department officials face when they try to help someone suffering from addiction.

Ms. Terhune has lived the opioid crisis. Her son, Eric Cabral, died three years ago after overdosing. The former Barrington High School graduate was 36 years old.

Ms. Terhune said her son started using drugs when he was young, just months after he graduated from high school. She said he started by smoking marijuana, and before long was using heroin. She said the drug Fentanyl killed him.

"He was in and out of rehabs," said Ms. Terhune. "He wanted to be sober. He was so embarrassed with his addiction."

Ms. Terhune attended the meeting, which was organized by the BAY Team, because she wanted to do something, anything to help combat the opioid crisis.

"I knew I had to step up," she said. 

Ms. Terhune offered some helpful information during the meeting. She said one of the most important tools in helping people battle addiction is aligning them with support coaches — someone they can talk to regularly about their situation.

"They're tired of it," she said, of people using drugs. "They don't want to keep doing it."

Barrington officials focused on a number of different issues related to the opioid crisis in town, including the challenge of collecting accurate data. 

Dr. Kristen Westmoreland, co-director of the BAY Team, shared a PowerPoint presentation that stated Rhode Island had 336 overdose deaths in 2016 — a 90 percent increase from 2011 to 2016, and 50 percent of the overdose deaths involved Fentanyl.

In 2017, Barrington had seven documented overdoses. All were non-fatal.

Barrington Fire Department Captain Scott Carroll said it is difficult to gather accurate data on the overdoses involving Barrington residents. He said some of the department's responses to overdose incidents may involve non-residents, and some residents may overdose when they are not in Barrington.

Captain Carroll said the department responded to a total of 20 suspected overdose calls in 2017, including six to seven calls where parents or police had administered naloxone (or Narcan) prior to EMTs' arrival.

Officials discussed possible ways to improve data collection, and also considered installing a Nalox Box, which would contain a dose of Narcan to reverse the effects of an overdose.

Officials also discussed whether police officers should carry the injectable form of Narcan as opposed to the nasal spray form which they currently have. Barrington Police Chief John LaCross said he was not opposed to having officers carry the injectable Narcan, as long as they are trained on how to properly administer it. (Warren police officers currently carry injectable Narcan, while Bristol officers do not carry any form of Narcan.)

Barrington High School Student Assistance Counselor Joanne Royley said administrators are not seeing the use of opioids among local high school students, but officials are working with the siblings of people who do suffer from addiction. 

Barrington Town Manager Jim Cunha asked if police officers have the power to charge someone who has overdosed on illicit drugs. Chief LaCross said he did not believe they did have that power.

Officials also spoke about educating the public on the local impact of the opioid crisis. They discussed adding helpful links to the town website, possibly installing Nalox Boxes (officials considered TAP-In or the town's public library as sites), and also requesting local pharmacies to include an information card when they fill a prescription for an addictive medication. 

Dr. Westmoreland also spoke about the connection between opioids and marijuana. Others said that connection could be seen in recent incidents where people had used marijuana that had been mixed or laced with other drugs, including Fentanyl.

Captain Carroll said that issue is worsened by the fact that some parents might be more liberal when it comes to allowing their children to use marijuana. 

More details

• High school data indicates that 64 percent of Barrington students find it very hard to get prescription pain medications without a prescription. This number has increased since 2001 when only 51 percent of students found it very hard.

• According to student data, 92 percent of Barrington High School students think their parents would say it is very wrong for teens to use prescription drugs without a doctor’s order (up from 74 percent in 2011). 

• Seventy percent of students think their friends would find it very wrong for students to use prescription medications not prescribed to them. This number has not changed significantly since 2013, however there is a gender difference with 83 percent of female students believing it is very wrong versus 70 percent of males. Also, only 57 percent of students in the senior class felt that their friends would think it would be very wrong to use prescription drugs not prescribed to them.

• Seventy nine percent of BHS students believe there is great risk to taking prescription medications without a doctor’s order (up from 64 percent in 2013). Student data indicates that 19 percent of students believe prescription pain medications are misused for the purpose of getting high. Seventeen percent believe they are misused to relieve stress. 

• Note: Student data is from the Barrington Risk and Protective Factor Survey administered in spring 2017.