An overflow crowd jammed the Guilford Community Center on Feb. 23 to hear experts talk and people share stories about the opioid and heroin drug crisis that has affected the community.

State Representative Sean Scanlon (D-Guilford, Branford) hosted the community forum that was attended by well over 100 interested shoreline residents.

The crowd was particularly moved by the story told by one of their own, Guilford parent Sue Kruczek.

“I lost my son Nick to an overdose,” said Kruczek, as many in the audience wiped tears away from their eyes. “I am here tonight to help bring awareness.

“He was my first born,” said Kruczek. “He was very athletic. He called or texted me every day. He was an extremely talented hockey player. But before his first high school game he was tossed a pill by a teammate. It started when he was 14. When he was 19, he had to go to rehab.

“In June of 2013, we found Nick in his apartment—gone—11 days before he would have turned 21,” she said.

Scanlon and others on a panel of medical experts, drug counselors, and police and fire personnel tried to pound home to the audience that the problem of drug overdoses is getting worse every day.

“In Connecticut, more people will die this year from opioid or heroin overdoses than from car accidents,” said Scanlon. “Our area and state have seen a dramatic rise in prescription drug and heroin abuse over the last few years.

“We’re making progress up in Hartford in terms of combating it, but, at the end of the day, the best way to fight back is to educate parents and the public,” Scanlon said.

Scanlon said it was “good to see” such a large turnout at the community meeting.

“We’d like to think things like this could never happen in Guilford,” said Scanlon. “But truth is we’ve lost five people to drug overdoses in the past few years.”

The rise in prescription drug abuse in New England is directly related to a corresponding rise in heroin abuse, the experts said.

Once an individual struggling with addiction has trouble securing prescription drugs, the Centers for Disease Control suggests he or she is 40 times more likely to experiment and become addicted to heroin due to its similar high and its lower cost compared to prescription drugs.

In 2015, Scanlon co-sponsored and helped pass a law that addressed the crisis by requiring doctors to take continuing medical education courses on prescribing pain pills and to check a state-run secure database of patient records to ensure that patients were not going from doctor to doctor to secure the same prescription.

It also expanded access to the life-saving anti-overdose drug known as Narcan.

Narcan nasal spray is used for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose, as manifested by respiratory and/or central nervous system depression.

Panelists at the community forum included Connecticut Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services Commissioner Dr. Miriam Delphin-Rittman, Guilford Police Department Detective Sergeant Tim Bernier and Officer Marilisa Anania, Guilford Fire Department Firefighter/Paramedic John Planas, and Dana Hilmer, prevention coordinator for Guilford DAY.