Nassau to launch 'Too Good for Drugs' program

Starting Monday, school officials, substance-abuse experts and law-enforcement personnel will participate in "Too Good for Drugs," a two-day training initiative at the Nassau County Police Department's police academy.

County Executive Edward Mangano, Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey and Jeffrey Reynolds, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, will help launch the initiative Monday at a news conference at 1:30 p.m.

The program is being paid for by the Nassau County Police Department through the use of asset forfeiture funds, or money generated through the sale of assets seized in drug-related convictions.

The initiative is the county executive's third prong in an approach to combating the current heroin epidemic in Nassau County, Mangano's office said in a release.

Mangano had announced in February the first two prongs of his approach to combating heroin - an enforcement initiative entitled Operation H.A.L.T. (Heroin Abuse Location & Targeting), which targets users traveling in and out of the county to purchase heroin; and an awareness initiative, which was the creation and dissemination of an ad campaign aimed at getting the attention of parents about the heroin epidemic.