News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Rehab capacity and vaping amoung the most serios substance abuse issues facing the Upper Cumberland.
Those the results of an Opioid Summit featuring mayors and local law enforcement. The discussion centered on how to best use opioid abatement money coming to the local level.
UCHRA Executive Director Mark Farley reported the findings to the Policy Council Wednesday. He said vaping has been the gateway to harder drugs especially in the youth.
“We’ve got to push for changes and legislation about vaping,” Farley said. “We need to establish some new, proven evidence based programs for prevention. Not that we don’t have good work being done now, but we can do better.”
Farley said the local funds could be used to help strengthen local programs to educate the younger population. Farley said local physicians also need to be involved in the conversation. Farley said 30 percent of overdoses happen with patients who have received a prescription.
“Not saying the doctors are doing wrong,” Farley said. “You have many cases where people cannot handle getting pain medication and go to the extreme. We have to work better and more closely with our doctors.”
Lastly, capacity for substance abuse rehab is limited. For example, Farley said if 10 people sought treatment today, only three would be able to obtain services.
“There’s not the beds in place to put them,” Farley said. “We have to do a better job in ramping up our capacity. (….) If you look at the averages on who is in active use, I would say we have between 15-20,000 people across the 14 counties that need some kind of structured assistance.”
The abatement opioid money could be used to start answering these issues. The money from the federal lawsuits will soon enter the local level. Jackson County Mayor Randy Heady said he received paperwork this week to start accepting the funds.
