A planned pilot program in Staten Island will have NYPD officers call ambulances for minors who appear drugged, and then contact their parents. View Full Caption Flickr/Dave Hosford

WESTERLEIGH — The NYPD's latest tactic for tackling Staten Island's drug epidemic is to talk to users' parents.

A pilot program will make it protocol for officers to call ambulances for intoxicated minors they find on the streets — then have a talk with their parents.

The initiative, dubbed Operation Youth First, was detailed by Assistant Chief Edward Delatorre, the borough commander for Staten Island, at a Community Board 1 meeting Tuesday night.

The program targets minors who aren't breaking any laws. Parents will be put in touch with service providers to discuss potential drug-treatment options, Delatorre said.

"When it comes to drug use — it's just like cancer — you catch it early, you hit it hard and you have the best success," Delatorre said.

"We're trying to help the parents know what's going on as early as we can."

Delatorre said the NYPD will partner with several local organizations that will explain the program and present treatment options to parents of kids flagged by police.

Since the program is still in the planning phase, the NYPD does not have a finalized list of service providers or a start date, a spokeswoman said.

Staten Island has been in the throes of a prescription drug and heroin epidemic, with the rate of overdoses climbing 261 percent from 2005 to 2011, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Since 2012 that rate has dropped slightly, but in 2013 an estimated 37 people died from drug-related overdoses, District Attorney Dan Donovan has said.

After a pilot program in the 120th Precinct, all NYPD and EMT workers citywide were equipped in July with an anti-overdose medication — naloxone — that essentially reverses the effects of the OD.

Last year, police throughout Staten Island used the medication 22 times — resulting in 21 saves, Delatorre said.