NORWICH – A law firm representing a panel of experts, the Opioid Justice Team, has invited parents, guardians, and caregivers from Chenango County to a town-hall style meeting on the drug crisis and its effect on local families.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, June 21, in the Norwich Family YMCA's Community Room. Event representatives said the meeting will feature opioid experts Celeste Brustowicz and Donald Creadore along with other local partners.

Representatives added that there are more prescription drug abusers in the U.S. today than any new users of illegal drugs, and the most innocent victims are opioid-dependent babies being born to women who were using drugs while pregnant: an opioid-dependent infant is born in America every 19 minutes.

This meeting comes after recent investigation by the Chenango County Sheriff's Office seized approximately 220 packets of heroin and nearly $2,000 in cash, believed to be laced with fentanyl.

"Sheriff’s deputies and detectives then located a pouch containing over 220 packets heroin that was possibly mixed with fentanyl between the seats. Over $1,900 in cash was located on the defendants when they were taken into custody along with more heroin," said Sheriff Ernest R. Cutting Jr.