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Police Find Heroin in Vehicle Where New Canaan Man, 26, Is Asleep at Wheel

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Police after midnight on a recent Saturday found heroin on a 26-year-old New Canaan man who had fallen asleep at the wheel of a motor vehicle, officials said. According to a press bulletin from Police Chief Leon Krolikowski, officers at about 12:10 a.m. on July 1 were called to Frogtown Road on a report that a motorist was asleep at the wheel in a driveway there. Police searched the car and found “a quantity of heroin,” Krolikowski said. The man, a Knapp Lane resident, was charged with possession of narcotics, a misdemeanor offense. Police released him on $250 bond and scheduled the man to appear July 14 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.

News

New Canaan Police Save Life in Town Following Heroin Overdose

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New Canaan Police Department officers have saved a heroin overdose victim’s life in town, officials said Monday. It isn’t clear when or where the incident occurred and, citing reasons of privacy, police also withheld details about the victim, such as age, gender and town of residence. According to a press release issued by Police Chief Leon Krolikowski, officers once dispatched arrived on scene in less than two minutes, determined that the victim recently had used heroin and administered a drug known as ‘Narcan,’ which is designed to reverse an opioid overdose. “The victim regained consciousness and treatment was taken over by the New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps,” Krolikowski said in the release. “The involved officers will be issued a life-saving medical service award.”

The chief recognized Silver Hill Hospital, which in 2014 helped NCPD become one of the first in the county whose patrol officers are trained and equipped with Narcan.

News

After Profound Loss, New Canaan Dad Launches Support Group To Help Parents of Kids Struggling with Addiction

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In retrospect, New Canaan resident Paul Reinhardt traces the start of a deeply painful four-year journey to May 2011, the moment he found Suboxone—a drug that can be used to treat addiction to narcotic painkillers—in his son’s nightstand drawer. It had been nine months since his son, Evan, was prescribed 30 opioid pills after getting his wisdom teeth out. The following spring, as Evan’s sophomore year at Miami University drew to a close, the young New Canaan High School graduate appeared suddenly disheveled and pale to his father, and back home that same month, local police during a traffic stop found pot and Xanax on him. “Because you as a parent are feeling his feelings in a lot of different ways, you have denial: ‘How could this really be happening?’ You have fear,” Reinhardt recalled on a recent morning. “You have loneliness.

News

Father Charged with Manslaughter in ’09 NCHS Grad’s Heroin Overdose Death

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Police on Monday arrested a 57-year-old New Canaan man by warrant and charged him with second-degree manslaughter in connection with the death of his own son by heroin overdose. Mark H. Lynch, of Parade Hill Road, additionally was charged with possession of narcotics and illegal manufacture, distribution or sale of drugs. His son, Christopher Lynch—a funny young man who rooted for the Jets and Yankees and graduated from New Canaan High School in 2009, according to his obituary—died Sept. 25. He was 25.

Public Safety
Douglas Addiction

What Drug Abuse and Addiction Look Like in New Canaan: A Panel Discussion

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Kera Townshend, a former captain of the New Canaan High School cheerleading squad, gave a glowing description Wednesday of her accomplishments and life in this town and then in college, with plenty to impress admissions officers, job interviewers or any audience. Then she gave the audience of well over 200 New Canaanites — at a panel discussion in Town Hall about heroin, opiod and general drug abuse — the seamy underside: Anxiety and, in some areas, lack of self confidence and wanting to get along, led her into some sordid drug and alcohol abuse and addiction. Addictions which stuck even after she thought she’d conquered them. Townshend was one of several speakers discussing opioid, heroin and substance addiction in general at a panel discussion that packed the community meeting room at Town Hall. It was organized by the League of Women Voters of New Canaan.