FRYEBURG — Community leaders are hosting a public conversation about heroin addiction next week, hoping to head off an epidemic that has scourged towns across the state before it becomes a local crisis.

A coalition of local, state and federal agencies will gather at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, at Fryeburg Academy to discuss how heroin and opiates have affected the community.

Fryeburg, one of the busiest points of entry from New Hampshire, is a portal for traffickers transporting drugs from out of state into Maine, Police Chief Joshua Potvin said. In April, two Sweden residents were arrested in Fryeburg for importing heroin from Massachusetts, and Potvin said the town is in the middle of the state’s addiction.  

“For us, we know it’s coming through every single day,” he said.

Last year there were four overdoses in Fryeburg, Potvin said, though just one so far this year. That man was revived by an officer in June thanks to a new town policy allowing police to carry the drug Narcan, which reverses the overdose.

Potvin said the forum is about education and creating a dialogue between law enforcement and the community it serves. Officers are instructed to help anyone who voluntarily turns in himself or herself and their drugs.

“We have referred many families to nearby hospitals and treatment facilities,” he said. “However, we are finding addicts are understandably cautious about confessing drug use to law enforcement in fear of prosecution. In many cases it’s a family member who reaches out to us rather than the addict themselves.”  

On the other hand, Potvin said there’s “zero tolerance” for anyone caught in the act.