Every year for the last five, Joe Gamble and a group of devoted volunteers, many from the Tidewater Rotary, sit around a conference table to plan the award-winning Talbot Goes Purple drug education campaign. It’s safe to say that everyone in that room was disappointed to be meeting.
That’s because the issue of drug overdose deaths in Talbot County, and the entire Mid-Shore, remain a horrifying reality for the community. In fact, as Sheriff Gamble noted in his interview with the Spy yesterday, the Eastern Shore experienced a 39% increase in overdoses in 2020.
While there is a small silver lining in that Talbot County had no increased deaths that year, that doesn’t take away the pain Gamble feels for the 13 cases that did take place that resulted in a young person’s death.
And that’s why Joe Gamble doesn’t hesitate to allocate a huge amount of his time in September talking at rallys, giving interviews, visiting schools, and implementing new creative ways to reach a new generation of students and their parents before it’s too late.
With a kick-off event scheduled for tonight at Idlewild Park in Easton, the sheriff and scores of volunteers begin this special month when the color purple is the most important one for the Eastern Shore.
This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about Talbot Goes Purple please go here, for Kent Goes Purple please go here, and for Dorchester Goes Purple please click here.
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