Somerville took an important step when it convened the community forum on addiction April 14. For too long, city officials and residents have looked away as the number of young people abusing drugs has risen.

Talk, however, is not enough, as Mayor Curtatone stressed in his opening remarks. City Hall must not linger too long in its “fact-finding phase.” Every day that passes without strong and decisive action is another day of the status quo—another day in which too many Somerville youth find themselves trapped in a cycle that too often ends in jail-time or death.

The mayor must move swiftly to devise his action plan and work with the city’s state representatives to secure the funding to finance it.

Curtatone says that the drug problem is his number one priority, and he is right to make it so. The drug epidemic is the greatest challenge facing Curtatone’s administration, and he will be judged by his success in addressing it.

The solution will undoubtedly involve law enforcement and an effort to stem the supply of drugs in the city, but it cannot stop at that. If one message came through clearly at the community forum, it was that the drug epidemic is a symptom of other problems facing kids in Somerville.

The study conducted last spring for the Board of Health found that 4 percent of Somerville middleschoolers have attempted suicide, another 8 percent have planned their suicide, and 14 percent thought about it. These numbers are significantly higher than those in the rest of the commonwealth.

Somerville needs to find the funding to reinstate the after-school programs that have been cut over the last decade. We need to expand the counseling, mentorship, and psychological programs in our schools, and make sure that every one of our kids feels they have a support system they can turn to—before despair drives them to contemplate suicide or drug abuse.

The community forum was a good first step. Now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.