With the two-year anniversary of the formation of the Community Coalition for Opiate Relief Efforts approaching, leaders say the small gains are starting to make a big difference in the fight against the opiate epidemic.
|
Recovery dates April 16 — Hope for a Hero, 2 to 6 p.m., Urbana City Park April 30 — Rx Drug Take Back Day, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mary Rutan Hospital May 1-2 — Ohio Opiate Conference, Columbus May 19 — Logan County EMS Banquet, 6 p.m., Bellefontaine First Church of God June 1-2 — Ohio Recovery Conference, Columbus July 13 — CORE quarterly meeting, 2:30 p.m., Union Station Aug. 28 — Families of Addicts’ Rally for Recovery, 3 to 5:30 p.m., Dayton Sept. 29 — CORE 2-year anniversary dinner, Bellefontaine First Church of God |
“You guys have done a lot of positive things in the last two years and sometimes it’s hard to wrap your arms around it all because it is a lot of small victories,” CORE co-chair Tammy Nicholl said during the Wednesday afternoon quarterly meeting.
“Sometimes in the community we only see the negative and we lose sight of what we have done. But we have come a long way, and in my opinion, we have got a lot of things to be proud of.”
The coalition, which was born of a local community needs assessment and support from the Ohio Attorney General’s opiate task force, will celebrate its two-year anniversary with a Sept. 29 dinner at the Bellefontaine First Church of God, Ms. Nicholl said.
Among recent developments, Ms. Nicholl, who is a staff member with the Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Services Board of Logan and Champaign Counties and Annette Deao of the Logan County Family Court’s treatment court, reported on the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit they attended in Atlanta at the end of March.
In her report, Ms. Deao said treatment providers must be wary of trying to combat opiates without tackling drug abuse as a whole.
“We’re dealing with opiates right now, but what we have to be ready for are other drugs like benzodiazepams, which are drugs like Valium or Xanax,” she said. “We’re turning the page and looking at how we got here with opiates and starting to look at what we can do to avoid letting it get to this point with other drugs.”
Read complete story in Thursday’s Examiner.
CLICK HERE to subscribe today!
WEB EDITION STARTING AT $9.50 FOR 5 WEEKS!