White County Resident Wants To See Opioid Spending

A White County resident shared her concerns with the White County Budget Committee about the lack of opioid abatement spending in the county.

White County Anti-Drug Coalition President Tina Lomax said the county has received some $276,000 from opioid abatement funds over the past two years. Lomax said that money has still not been dispersed despite a genuine need for more addiction care in the county.

“There are people that are dying in our community and we all are lacking resources,” Lomax said. “That’s the one thing that we’re lacking is resources and this money is here. So I just kind of want answers like if there’s a process that we need go through, give me the process. We want to do this.”

County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson said he wants to spend the money but he is unsure what the best options are to make the most of those finances. Robinson said he will work with a special subcommittee overseeing the funding to gather information for the budget committee about how that money could be spent.

“I’ve got one group that comes in and says catch them while they’re young,” Robinson said. “Catch them while they’re young, keep them off of it, prevent it, that’s what you need to do. And then turn around and the next expert is (saying) we need to treat them, we need to provide treatment for them to go somewhere and be counseled and whatnot. And another group will come in and say we need to provide housing for them.”

Robinson said this funding is all county money but he still wants input from Sparta to make sure that community gets the help it needs. Robinson said the county needs to be careful of how many reoccurring expenses it uses the funding for because the money will not last forever.

“We’ll get three years of this a hundred thousand plus money,” Robinson said. “It’s going to drop quick to probably less than fifty thousand a year, maybe less than ten thousand until you get out to the year eighteen.”

Robinson said there is already a subcommittee meant to work on the subject consisting of General Sessions Judge John Meadows, Sheriff Steve Page, Police Chief Nick Dunn and others. Robinson said that group has discussed creating new counseling and drug court opportunities for those suffering from addiction.

“That still doesn’t help your normal addict that may not have a drug problem, you see what I’m saying?” Lomax said. “Like those that haven’t made it that far yet, to the judicial system.”

Lomax said she has spoken with Meadows about making a presentation detailing how the money could be used but neither of them know specifically what they should be presenting to the county. Lomax said the funding should be in the hands of those who are working with the population.

“I think there’s enough money that we could do many options,” Lomax said. “There’s many of the sectors of this that we could work out. The point is we just don’t need it sitting here. We need it to be working for what it was allocated for, and that is the opiate epidemic.”

Lomax said Seeds of Hope could also receive support from the opioid funding as its shelter has two beds dedicated just for respite. Lomax said those beds give people the chance to get out of a dangerous or harmful situation related to opioid use.

“A lot of times you can’t get them into treatment immediately,” Lomax said. “They need some time of respite away from the situation so that we can get them facilitated to where they need to go.”