COURT HOUSE – Soon after Cape May County Sheriff Robert Nolan became the county’s 100th sheriff, he experienced the death of his son to an accidental overdose of fentanyl.
Nolan said his son had battled with drug addiction before, but he had gotten clean; however, he had injured his knee at work and was in a lot of pain. An ex-girlfriend provided him with Oxycontin, which is a powerful painkiller, except the pills she gave him were laced with fentanyl. Nolan said they knew what he had taken because there was another dose found on his nightstand. Nolan later learned that the amount of fentanyl contained in one of the capsules was more than enough to kill someone.
As sheriff, Nolan became aware of the problems associated with incarcerating addicts, but losing his son was a turning point in his life.
“When you lose a kid, you go through that kind of pain where there’s only one of two things you can do – either throw up your hands and give up or you resolve to try to change things,” he said.
Nolan felt that, as the county sheriff, it was imperative that he get involved. Shortly after his son’s death he met with Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland and said they needed to work together to try to curtail drug overdoses in the county.
“We had to work on ways to try to curtail this flood of overdoses and fentanyl. Young people are dying at such a rapid rate. I hear it was over 100,000 nationwide last year. In the 10 years of the Vietnam War, 58,000 people died. One year in this country from fentanyl almost twice as many young people,” he said.
Nolan, a former Lower Township councilman, reached out to Lower Township Council and the chief of police and they came up with an idea to encourage addicted people into treatment. In fact, he decided if people wouldn’t go get the treatment they needed, the Sheriff’s Office would come to them.
He said he linked up with the Cape Addiction Recovery Services (CARES) team at Cape Regional Medical Center, the Prosecutor’s Office, and its Hope One van, along with the Sheriff’s Office, where he established the position of Community Outreach Officer. Nolan hired Scott Mason, who retired from the Sheriff’s Officer as a lieutenant with 25 years of service, to fill that position.
The result was the formation of the Overdose Response Team which is running a pilot program in Lower Township. When there is an overdose, first responders know to reach out to the CARES team.
“They notify us and Scott’s involved where we go out and we try to explain to the person who’s suffered the overdose and try to explain to them all the options that are out there,” Nolan said.
By the time they get to the scene, first responders have administered Narcan and reversed the effects of the opioid. The CARES team representatives from the hospital go to the overdose victim, and Mason goes to speak to the family. Even though he is a law enforcement officer, Mason dresses down for the part, wearing his blue Hope One polo shirt. Nolan said Mason will sit down with the family, sometimes for hours, soliciting their support and trying to get the addict to go to rehab.
“Some of the addicts won’t take advantage of the programs, so we’re bringing the programs to the addict, and we’re integrating their family for input and support,” Nolan said.
Mason said the program has been running for a little over two months. He said they will also do follow up visits, called a “Knock and Talk,” where they go to the victim’s house and see if there is anything they can do. They also let them know about drug rehabilitation facilities – which are all located in other counties – and provide them with literature.
“We hit every house that’s had an overdose. Like the sheriff said, we’re always figuring ways to bring it to them if they don’t want to come to us,” Mason said.
Mason said they will even take the Hope One van to certain hot spot locations in the county and park and just talk to passersby or wait to be approached by people with questions. Mason said they are trying to reach a larger audience with information about addiction, treatment and prevention. He said everybody knows someone who has a friend or family member who is addicted or was addicted, or who has passed away as a result of addiction. Nolan, whose office oversees the Cape May County Correctional Facility, said treating the drug problem is going to take education and treatment.
“I don’t think you’re going to solve it with incarceration,” Nolan said.
Nolan, with the cooperation of Superior Court Judge Mark Sanson, introduced two programs at the jail. One is medically assisted treatment (MAT), which treats addiction for those in jail. Nolan said it was learned that when people are incarcerated, they lose the tolerance they had for certain drugs, and when they are released and use at the same level the result is often fatal.
The other program is to offer transportation to a rehab facility as soon as one becomes available. He said if someone who is addicted is arrested and a bed becomes available in a rehab facility, sheriff’s officers will transport the individual to wherever it might be in New Jersey. Otherwise, he said, that person might miss the only opportunity to get into that facility. who is addicted is arrested and a bed becomes available in a rehab facility, sheriff’s officers will transport the individual to wherever it might be in New Jersey. Otherwise, he said, that person might miss the only opportunity to get in that facility.
Nolan said while attending the Overdose Awareness Day program in October, a young man approached him and thanked him for the MAT program, saying, “I would have been dead had it not been for that.”
Asked about the prevalence of mental illness among addicts, Nolan said that in 38 years in law enforcement he has seen a lot of it. Nolan said not enough is being done to address mental illness and addiction. Often, he said, when someone wants to get treatment for mental illness, they either have to wait three to four weeks to get in or travel several counties up the road. When they encounter someone who wants to go through treatment, they will refer them to Families Matter because they have an onsite doctor.
Nolan said new officers are being trained in the academy about how to deal with individuals with mental illness that might be compounded by alcohol or addiction.
“We’re trying to change the face of law enforcement within a community. That’s what the whole community outreach is for,” Nolan said.
“You can’t be indifferent. If you have an ounce of care in you, you have to do something,” he said.
Thoughts? Questions? Email csouth@cmcherald.com.
