$50,000 in restitution from drug case pays for new youth center

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A $50,000 grant derived from restitution in a recent drug case will benefit young people who are in recovery from alcohol and marijuana use, officials announced on Thursday. And the money will benefit a new recovery program that now is named in memory of the late Jim Gillen, a pioneer of the state’s recovery movement.

“We’ve had a need for this kind of program for a very long time,” said Abbie Stenberg, a recovery coach at the new Jim Gillen Anchor Youth Recovery Community Center on North Main Street, operated by The Providence Center, a Care New England affiliate. This is the first such program to open in Rhode Island.

Noting that adult addicts typically trace the beginnings of their disease to use of alcohol and marijuana when they were teens, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin spoke of the national and state opioid epidemics as “a crisis that will not go away anytime soon.”

But programs such as the Gillen Center’s provide hope, Kilmartin and others asserted at Thursday’s opening ceremony. The center will provide at-risk teenagers with services including support groups, recovery meetings, one-on-one recovery coaching, help with homework and parental involvement, all at what Kilmartin described as “a safe place to go” after school lets out for the day.

Along with state police superintendent Col. Ann C. Assumpico, Kilmartin was instrumental in a case that led in December to a plea arrangement by Joseph R. Esposito, owner of a prominent jewelry company, who on Nov. 5 was arrested and charged with multiple counts of marijuana possession. In return for a suspended prison sentence, Esposito agreed to forfeit seized assets and pay the $50,000 for the Gillen Center.

Assumpico described the program as “unique,” adding that “we have to see more of this.”

A joint media release from Kilmartin and Assumpico included disturbing statistics from the 2015-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which is compiled by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

According to the data, as described in the release, “Rhode Island was third [highest] in the nation for marijuana use by youth age 12 to 17 in the past year …” The state “ranked as the third highest for consumption of alcohol, with 12.10 percent of youth ages 12 to 17 admit to having alcohol in the past 30 days, as compared to the national average of 9.4 percent,” the data show.

Speaking of Esposito, Kilmartin said “make no mistake, the defendant in this case was profiting from illegal marijuana that most certainly made it into the hands of our youth, and it’s only fitting that some of his ill-gotten profits be put towards a program to support youth struggling with substance use disorders.”