Smithtown launches task force to tackle opioid crisis

The Town of Smithtown has launched a new task force to develop solutions to the opioid crisis and educate people who are struggling with addiction.

In February, the Smithtown Town Board approved the formation of the Opioid and Addiction Task Force. The group will work with local organizations, health care providers, schools, first responders and law enforcement to educate the community, offer access to resources and fight the stigma around addiction.

The town launched the task force to develop a unified approach to addiction and mental health challenges in the community, said Madlyn Makboulian, director of drug and alcohol counseling services at the Horizons Counseling and Education Center in Smithtown.

Fatal opioid overdoses show the need “to support people who have lost loved ones, [and] to help people who have loved ones who are suffering,” Makboulian said in an interview. The center has seen a rise in people coming in struggling with opioid issues — sometimes starting with prescriptions for injuries, she said.

In 2023, Suffolk's medical examiner’s office recorded a total of 463 fatal overdoses in the county, a decline of more than 11% from 2022, when there were 523 fatal overdoses, Newsday previously reported.

The task force is planning a recovery event on May 17. The event will feature services such as Narcan training, a prescription medication disposal initiative and guest speakers from various agencies. 

The task force was formed at the suggestion of Susan Buroker, a Smithtown resident and artist. She created a sculpture of a phoenix for Huntington’s Heckscher Park, known as “Hope & Healing,” as a tribute to those struggling with drug and alcohol addiction or mental illness. Buroker said after the sculpture was completed last year, she reached out to State Sen. Mario Mattera (R-Saint James) about the need to bring awareness of Smithtown.

Buroker said she had spoken with more than 200 people about their struggles with opioid addiction or the loss of loved ones to addiction. She said she realized the importance of a community's involvement in tackling the opioid crisis locally.

“I heard their stories, and I realized that there’s only so much that a single person can do ... people don’t know where they can go to for help,” Buroker said.

Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim said there are “far more individuals” affected by the opioid crisis in Smithtown and other places on Long Island than people know. “They deserve the help, and it has to start from government,” he said in an interview.

Sharon Richmond, a Huntington resident and member of the Town of Huntington Opioid and Addiction Task Force, said she lost her son Emanuel Vincent D’Antoni in 2017 at age 25 to a fentanyl overdose.

Richmond said: “For young adults like my son, he kind of felt lost. To have community connections to support people is important.”