ROYAL OAK BANDS TOGETHER TO FIGHT SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Nearly 70 Have Overdosed On Drugs Since January, Police Say

ROYAL OAK -- Zack Goddard had heard the message from his parents
early on: Don't do drugs.

Goddard's father even drug tested his son repeatedly when he
discovered the message had been ignored. But heroin's lure was too strong.

While his Royal Oak parents and siblings were enjoying the play "Les
Miserables" at the Fisher Theatre on Easter, April 19, Zack Goddard
was using heroin and marijuana at a friend's apartment. He overdosed
and died. He was 19.

Royal Oak residents are sickened by the number of drug overdoses in
their community. Royal Oak Fire Chief Wil White reports there have
been close to 70 drug overdoses -- many from heroin -- in the city
since January. Three died.

Just this week, a 25-year-old Sterling Heights man, Louie Awdish,
died in Royal Oak from heroin laced with fentanyl.

To combat the problem, residents have created the Save Our Youth Drug
Intervention Task Force, and are exploring ideas such as hiring a
full-time drug abuse counselor for the new high school.

"This is a war we've been fighting, and it's time to stop," said
Royal Oak High School Principal Thomas H. Neville. "Heroin use is on
the rise, and you can get it just as cheaply as marijuana now. It is
pretty frightening. It's not enough to say Royal Oak has a drug
problem. Our society has a drug problem."

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said heroin can be found
throughout the county.

"But in the last five years, we've seen an increase in use among
younger people in high school and younger grades," he said. "Some are
using it for personal use and others are dealing it to supply their
personal use."

That's why the task force, a consortium of law enforcement, parents,
educators, school administrators, students and concerned citizens, is
working with groups such as the Royal Oak Prevention Coalition, to
prepare for the start of school.

Many of the recent heroin-related deaths since April have been
fentanyl-related. Zack Goddard's wasn't.

"My son had gone into the Marines and he knew he had to be clean,"
said his father, Kirk Jude Goddard, who attended the most recent
Royal Oak task force meeting in July.

"So he had gotten off all drugs. He was totally clean. But he came
back here on a 10-day leave."

Goddard said his son got hooked on drugs in the seventh grade and got
caught at school with drugs in the ninth grade. Despite a stint at a
drug treatment center, heroin's attraction proved too irresistible.

"I am a mental health professional, and I struggle with what I could
have done differently," Goddard said.

That's the question the task force wants to get ahead of.

"The kids know who's using drugs," said Royal Oak Schools
Superintendent Thomas L. Moline.

"We try to get as close to those circles as we can, but we cannot get
inside the circles. The ideal is to develop a peer-to-peer system to
report each other. Not in a bad way, but in a caring way, which I
know is a totally foreign concept, especially for those in middle
school. But we must try."