I'm really happy to hear our town leadership is talking and acting collectively to take advantage of the momentum of recent events. Now we can do our part by showing up at the next RCASA meeting in October. We can also do our part by listening, and by positive contribution. I'm getting a little tired of all the finger-wagging, parental deficiency crowd.

having gone to school in Reading and grown up watching those kids I think I could have a good amount of insight on the situation for the higher ups in this town. I hope that if this meeting takes place, the date and place will be announced here on the Patch so that I can try to attend.

RCASA should not be having ANNUAL meetings. At a minimum, they should be held quarterly. I would think with the seriousness of the recent events that the "annual" meeting should be moved up to the first or second week in September. By the time they meet in October and decide on any type of action, the kids will be half way through the school year.

Honestly, I cannot believe this comment... Robinson said. “Maybe we’re not doing anything wrong. I don’t know.” Obviously, something is being done wrong if our young people are dying.

I've ionly lived in this town for 11 years, but, man, quality of life has really taken a turn for the worse in this town over the past 5 or so years: greatly increased break-ins, drug arrests, finding needles/syringes in playgrounds, and now drug related assasaults and murders. When I moved here the biggest news in town was the "hockey dad" murder and it was viewed as such as anamoly in what I'd viewed as a safe place to move and start a family. Now 11 years later it's the next generation (including hockey dad's son) involved in serious crimes, and they're almost becoming...commonplace and routine.
At first I wanted to put the blame for crime ramping up in the past 5 years on town residents new to the town in past 5 years, which would be the new 40B housing/section 8 housing --but it's not that easy. A fair amount of this recent crime seems to be home grown and perpetrated by longtime residents (and not just the young ones, either, remember the town employee running drugs out of his home?).
The one commonality does seem to be drugs, doesn't it. The dirty little secret of towns like ours.
I don't have an answer, but as a mother of preschool and early elementary age children, part of me wonders whether this town, in the next 5 years, will become a really, really unsafe place to live & raise a family.

Sorry for all the typos - I really do know how to spell, but keyboard acting funky with double letters, etc.

World cafe......Are you kidding me? A whole bunch of people talking about "we have drugs in our schools/community" - no kidding!!!! They had a similar meeting years ago and nothing happens. This is designed for the admin. & town officials to Cover there ***. Here is a question. "If we have a cop in the HS, and the school is flooded with drugs as people say, then where is the cop?" Could it be that when he catches someone? The admin. sweep it under the rug? Better yet? Have the kid join the cross country team so that he can still be the defenseman on the SUper 8 team. Good call Vacarro. It is time for town officials to get out of the way and not hold a Cambridge type World Cafe and let the Police do there job!!!!

Charles - I totally agree it is wrong to blame affordable housing and I don't. At first, my instinct was to look @ places like Archstone/Reading commons (which did have the prostitution bust a few years back) & places that seemed prevelant on the police blotter, and think that increased the problems, but I know that is not the case. Several of my child's classmates live in Reading Commons - very nice folk. I would be very interested in hearing the input of the Police as to where they find the MOST drugs in this town and/or the most crime related to drugs. Even if the answer is politically incorrect. Even if the answer seems to point a finger at a sacred cow in this town (e.g., Reading School sports, if some posts are to be believed, but I don't know for sure). Then, let's target that first.

Charles - I totally agree it is wrong to blame affordable housing and I don't. At first, my instinct was to look @ places like Archstone/Reading commons (which did have the prostitution bust a few years back) & places that seemed prevelant on the police blotter, and think that increased the problems, but I know that is not the case. Several of my child's classmates live in Reading Commons - very nice folk. I would be very interested in hearing the input of the Police as to where they find the MOST drugs in this town and/or the most crime related to drugs. Even if the answer is politically incorrect. Even if the answer seems to point a finger at a sacred cow in this town (e.g., Reading School sports, if some posts are to be believed, but I don't know for sure). Then, let's target that first.

You're right "M", we have to be willing to speak the truth aloud, even if it is our sacred cows. As for an earlier post that chastised RCASA for only meeting annually, I suggest you educate yourself prior to more finger wagging. RCASA's upcoming meeting happens to be an Annual Partners Meeting, or something like that. Lots of other things, including meetings, happen in between. If you would actually like to know what RCASA has done, so that you can be informed and at least bash people and grops based on what is true and actual, call the RCASA outreach person at 781-942-6756.

"Annual Partners meeting or something like that"? Sounds like I'm not the only one who needs to be educated about the RCASA meetings. I find it particularly irritating that I had to email the Director of RCASA to ask her to chime in on the comments and questions being posed on her own post on the Patch regarding what is being done in town about substance abuse. No one person on RCASA has made a single comment to any of the recent posts regarding the drug related deaths in town. Not one. Why not?

True, Peter - only problem is the article is titled "RCASA Reaches Out To Reduce Opiate Abuse". If they are truly reaching out to address this drug problem, then they should be actively addressing comments and suggestions from those they are supposedly reaching out to - whether the individual choses to identify themselves or not.

Different comment than the RCASA stuff. Let's talk PARENTS.. Many of the sports teams at RMHS are drug-free. BUT, some of the biggest, most serious drug users (and sellers!) are on the boys hockey, boys lacrosse and football teams. Major parties are held where PARENTS buy and supply the beer for the kids, and get loaded themselves. Also, if, say your 16 year old is doing Oxycontin, heroin (they smoke it), or Percocets, and you claim you, as a parent, don't see the signs...you are playing a dangerous game of denial. Parents, the teens are not that good at hiding their usage of drugs, especially if there drunk, stoned, or high! You are not clueless. Also, to parents who suspect their sons are using the stuff and playing varsity sports, I think you ignore it b/c you don't want to jeopardize your kid's sports positions. On some level, you may think it makes your kid cool or more popular. So, to those parents, consider this each time you overlook their usage:: Are you prepared to visit your son in a cemetary or a prison? Do you love him enough to do your hard job and be the bad guy and get him away from the drugs and into treatment? Stop playing games and save your son. Joe Ronan's murder was a drug hit..Think about it every time your son comes home too late, too out of it, too broke (where does the money go?), to "tired" to get out of bed, too manic from the heroin (or lack of it once addicted). Be the strong, tough, good parent and save your son.

The Reading Police Department does an excellent job. Having said that I find it disheartening the department does not have a full time drug unit. This incident coupled with the Lawrence incident has exposed Reading's 9/11.

The police department simply does not have the street intelligence to link buyer with seller and create a climate where dealers fear the risk of arrest and prosecution, because there is not a full time drug unit assigned to perform that task. I believe it is part economics and part the failure by policy makers to honestly admit that large quantities of narcotics move thru this community. Community leaders do not want to spend the money to create a unit to combat the problem fearing the money spent on a social problem is being thrown into an abyss, and the solution is better solved thru education and rehabilitation. That philosophy may have a place in a Socratic classroom but not in the real world. (Continued)

Without strong drug enforcement, this community has allowed heavy street level narcotics to gain a strong foothold. Until the people of Reading demand that a professional drug unit be implemented then the problem will continue and the 50+ overdoses (Many saved by narcan by our excellent Fire Department EMT's on scene) each year will continue to go unreported. The Police Department has an excellent Chief that is committed to community policing. His hands are tied by the policy failures of those running the community and is told to do his best with limited resources. Resources are spent on cigarette stings and underage drinking stings because they yields tangible results for the money spent. Unfortunately that type of policing is just putting lipstick on a pig while Oxycontin and Heroin dealers have become entrenched in the community. To see those entities engage in turf wars in this Municipality has brought the element of violence to our community never seen before.

If the community continues to support the status quo in Law Enforcement tactics then be prepared to expect these incidents to repeat themselves. If the community throws it's collective weight behind the Police Department and supports the initiative to create a viable and effective drug unit then dealers will be targeted like they never have before. Dealers need to know that they are being targeted. Right now they simply are not!

Great points Chris & Karl! The police know who the people are if many who post here obviously do,their hands are tied byt he BOS who want to create more committees to study the problem while kids continue to get hooked and die as a result. RCASA is headed by all people who are paid town employees.IE Chief, Superintendent and selectpeople. It is a sweet way to cover it up as no one will be bold enough to speak the truth or they risk loosing their job. As a community we need to be vocal and demand action. I would love to see the K-9 unit drug team randomly check the lockers and schools. The sheriffs dept has k-9 as does the State Police, Why can we not utilize them? Why do we need to have a World Cafe? we know what the problem is demand action from the town leadership and hold them accountable or they can be replaced

Karl.....That is a quick fix.....Then the specialized units leave.....We need sustained intell because they players involved come and go.....Right now the heat is on and the dealers will lay low....This was a perfect storm waiting to happen.....From the cops I have spoken to no one knew the players involve in the Ronan killing...They knew the names but did not have the intel regarding their comings and goings...One way to judge a drug problem in a community is to contact the EMT's on the ambulance and get rough estimates on the number of saves (narcan hits) in a year. It is not an official statistic. Then contact food and drug on the amount of fatal overdoes each year from the individual municipality. That would give you an idea of the depth of the problem. Police in marked cruisers have little effect on the drug trade. It bothers me when I hear people refer to Reading as Fitchburg with a Jordan's funiture!

Karl....Once the drug culture gets established, and becomes the norm with the 18-30 crowd you will never get rig of it! Reading is has become the "Opium Den" of Middlesex County. Welcome to Fitchburg with a Jordan's furniture!

Peter....Reading has more mainstream kids involved in the drug culture than similarly situated communities. That is an opinion. But it is my choice to raise my kids elsewhere to keep them safe and away from that culture. Take a look at the "HIDTA" The high intensity drug trafficking areas..... http://www.justice.gov/ndic/pubs40/40392/40392p.pdf
Do you think it is an unreasonable to suggest a full time drug unit? I did not come up with that slogan. I wanted like to move back to Reading six years ago so my kids could go to school here and play hockey. My wife begged me not to. I am glad she put her foot down. She was right. God only knows what would have happened!

Peter....Welcome to "HIDTA" county!!!!

Thank you Peter for helping me prove my point!

Reading Girl you hit the name on the head. Parenting is the key to a large number of problems to curb the tide of our youth. We cannot be their friends, they have plenty of them good and bad. It's our job to guide them during these tough and cloudy adolescent years. Bring on the random drug screens and search the lockers rather then having a world cafe to delay getting these issues addressed

Reminds me of a quote I read a few years ago.
"There are 3 types of people.
There are those who say, “There’s a rat in this room, and I’m going to kill it,”
A second group says, “There’s a rat in this room; let’s form a committee to figure out how to kill it.”
And a third group asks, “Did anyone notice there’s a rat in the room?”

While platitudes seem to help simplify things, I'm not sure they have much of a place with these problems. All I know is that a young man was assassinated in his own home by another one of our own. And the murdered boy was the beloved child and brother of his family as well as beloved friend to many. He was loved greatly , and from the sounds of it, loved greatly back. His life was cut short before he had a chance to right his ship.

DARE

DRUGS ARE READINGS ECONOMY

JAY

There are no drugs in Reading....and we have the addicts to prove it!!

Christine, your comment is sad but true. This is not a new problem but an ongoing one that now has many former drug users as the parents. Guilt & denial makes it even harder for these same parents to say "Drugs kill".