County District Attorney Jim Farrell

Sullivan County District Attorney Jim Farrell was the guest speaker at our May 3rd meeting. He began his presentation by speaking about the value of not underestimating the education you can receive at a Community college. He spoke about his years at Dutchess Community College and the teacher who sparked him to go on to become a lawyer. Members of our club spoke about the great education they received at Sullivan County Community College before moving on to four year schools. D.A. Farrell graduated from law school and had a law practice in Vermont before becoming an assistant district attorney for thirteen years in the office of former D.A. Steve Lundgen. He has been the county D.A. since he was elected in 2009. D.A. Farrell said that there are a lot of parallels between Vermont and it's beauty as a state and Sullivan County.

Drugs in our county: “The heroine epidemic and the addiction to opiates and pain killers is not unique to our county”, D.A. Farrell said. It is a crisis that the entire nation is undergoing. The problem has it's roots in the over-prescribing of new powerful pain killers by doctors since the late nineties. People with minor medical problems became addicted to pain killers, and in many cases, eventually moved on to heroine.

New York State has a new system that makes it harder to steal prescriptions and get access to these drugs.S

D.A. Farrell spoke about what his office is doing. Their stategy is a three-pronged attack:

- Enforcement - Local and state law enforcement agencies conducted several major drug sweeps over the past year. They targeted people involved in drug related activities which are usually associated with gang activity and it's related violence.

- Education - D.A. Farrell goes into the local schools to speak and to educate our young about the dangers of pain killers and other related drugs.

- Get people to treatment - “You can force people to get help”, D.A. Farrell said, and it works. It is curable

We must give people hope.  The Catholic Charities has taken over the operation of the Recovery Center. That agency is doing a better job at getting people the help they need.

D.A. Farrell said, “We see and hear a lot of bad things about our county, it's nice to visit a group like Rotary where you can hear the good stuff”.

"We are working on the problem. We will continue to work on the problem. There are no silver linings" said D.A Farrell.

There was a lengthy question and answer period. D.A Farrell received a loud round of applause for his presentation.