Deptford Council officially introduced two new ordinances at its Oct. 21 meeting that focus on anti-drug commissions created to educate the public on drug use.
One measure will abolish the township’s place on the county’s disbanded Municipal Alliance Commission – also called the Municipal Alliance Program – while the other will establish the township’s Municipal Substance Awareness Commission, Deptford’s own version of the disbanded group.
“The Municipal Alliance Commission was disbanded at the state and county level,” explained Mayor Paul Medany. “We used to be a part of that. After it was disbanded, the municipalities were given the option to either discontinue it on their part or form their own program. We decided to start our own program.”
The original alliance commission was created in 1989 by the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (GCADA) as a planning and coordinating panel to focus on preventing drug use through policy and planning; public awareness; and education on drug use, tobacco use and alcoholism.
The township’s plan will focus on the same concepts but only at the local level, as opposed to including the county and state levels as well.
“We did it so we have a new committee focusing on educating people,” Medany noted. “We’ll educate people on drug and alcohol use, as well as teaching people about mental health and how that is a factor in addiction.”
The Municipal Substance Awareness Commission will be funded by the state from national opioid settlements. Those, in turn, resulted from federal lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies for the part they played in the opioid epidemic. The multiple settlements across the country – according to Medany – involved hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Adopting these ordinances will give us the ability to start spending the money we received,” said Medany.
The Deptford council will vote to adopt the two ordinances at its next meeting on Monday, Nov. 25, a session that was rescheduled. A public hearing on the ordinances will also be planned.
