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Help Stop Heroin Public Forum emphasizes importance of funding, public awareness

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Photo by Alyx Chandler

On Monday, February 27, Samford Master of Public Health students hosted a public forum to address community concerns about the opioid epidemic and the increase in the number of deaths associated with heroin and prescription opioid overdoses.

The forum, called Help Stop Heroin, was led by eight panelists and attended by about 40 residents in the community, including Representative Jack Williams. Each of the panelists introduced the audience with what they knew of the opioid crisis, what they were doing to deal with it and what they wanted to know.  

"We've learned that we can't keep arresting," Angel Castillo, who works in special services for the FBI, said. "... We have to be smart about this."

Instead of arrests, the panelists repeatedly mentioned that not only should the Birmingham parents, students and community members become more "honest and open" about the ongoing drug crisis, but they should also recognize how necessary funding is in order to provide much-needed prevention awareness and user treatment.

“We have a real problem in the state, and the first thing we have to do is recognize the problem," Jim Perdue, the commissioner of the department of mental health for Alabama, said. 

Some statistics were shared at the forum from the latest Birmingham coroner's report, including that 248 people died of a drug overdose in 2016.

"For me, it’s a reminder of where we’ve been and where we’ve failed in a community. We need to mobilize, it’s amazing what we can accomplish if so," Barry Matson, executive director of Alabama District Attorney's Association, said. "I want to make sure we keep the fight going. At some point in time, enough is enough."

Mark Wilson, a health officer for Jefferson County Department of Health, said that in dealing with opiates, everyone has to realize it's not a "black-and-white problem," and that there are still people with chronic pain who benefit from prescribed chronic opioids. He also mentioned that the overprescription of opioids are "decreasing slightly" as the sanctions on licensed doctors are getting stricter and doctors are getting more nervous.

Wilson went on to talk about how Jefferson County has a Hepatitis C epidemic. Because of a grant given to UAB that allows doctors to offer free testing services to patients, they found that roughly 10 percent of the white population tested positive, along with roughly 3 percent of the black population.

The Pills to Needles initiative, which is a community-wide partnership of multiple agencies and stakeholders in Jefferson County, formed in 2014 to develop and carry out various strategies to address the heroin problem, was then mentioned. 

There was talk about the possible need for needle exchange to be set up on a very limited basis, and only in counties deemed by the state health department to be at high risk for a major HIV or hepatitis outbreak. A similar situation in Scott County, Indiana, has been proven to alleviate epidemics of HIV and major hepatitis outbreaks in 2015, where U.S. Vice President Mike Pence signed an executive order supporting it. In the Scott County area, there totaled 181 new cases of HIV and hepatitis C in only one year.

Currently, needle exchange is not legal in Alabama due to drug paraphernalia laws, so legislation would be needed for any such program. Read more on the program in an article here. 

"We have five or six counties that share characteristics that could easily have an outbreak, and we currently have no way of dealing with it, which is why we are proposing this in a legislative case," Wilson said, stating that otherwise, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to treat a case. In Scott County, for example, the estimated lifetime treatment for all those people is over $70 million.

"This costs a huge amount of money in uncompensated care, and we only have one detox system with beds in the whole state," he said.

Several audience members spoke saying that the school systems and parents at home need to be having honest and open discussions about prevention, and not let stigma get in the way from education of mental health and drug use.

The discussion was eventually brought back to funding.

"We may be vastly underreporting the overdose deaths. We need coordination based on data," Foster said, including that they needed funding in order to do research and get data. "We need to make sure our precious resource dollars are used the right way."

He went on to suggest including a position in office that focuses on the drug addiction as a "long-term problem. Foster concluded, with the agreement of several panelists, that the community doesn't need to sit still on the backend while the "next big drug" is entering Birmingham. He mentioned fentanyl and Carfentanil as examples. Carfentanil is used traditionally as an elephant tranquilizer and can "kill on contact" in high enough doses, he said.

Danny Molloy, a panelist and also the Program Support Specialist for the Addiction Prevention Coalition, also shared his story as a former heroin addict.

"I have been to 20 rehabs, five psychiatric units and started with Oxycontin," he said. "I've spent the last seven years sharing my story in middle schools and high schools, and it amazes me what kids are facing these days."

He said that at the End Heroin Bham walk on Saturday, February 25, almost 4,000 were in attendance as he shared his story. This was an "amazing demonstration of how much people care," he said, and also extremely eye-opening. When he asked everyone in the audience to step forward if they knew someone personally that passed away from a drug overdose, he said that all but a few people in the audience stepped forward.

He asked the room at the public forum the same question. Almost every person raised their hands. Without a place to go for treatment, he said there is no way for the opioid problem to get better. He said it usually takes two weeks for people to get help at rehab currently. 

"Drug addicts have no hope if they have nowhere to go. We have got to address it. We are spending money in reaction of lawsuits. Talk to your legislatures," Foster said, following up with how important research and treatment is for the community.

There are two items that the panel shared that they were hoping to work on to combat the problem within the next year:

The panel went on to mention, in response to audience inquiries, that although this space would eventually need the help of volunteers, the first point of progress would need to be financially driven. 

"What we would like to see is using people in recovery," Cook said. "Coupled with volunteers at the Crisis Center, part of what we would do is build this around volunteerism."

He went on to urge residents to call their state representatives and voice the importance of funding for addiction services and treatment initiatives like the ones they are hoping to provide. Representative Jack Williams closed the forum by saying that people need to make sure the church is a place where "we love, not shame."

For anyone that wants to learn more about the dangers of opiate addiction, there will be a free 50-minute film screening of "Chasing the Dragon, the Life of an Opiate Addict" on March 6.

“It’s raw, it's about people who have gone through it or passed away, and some have beat the odds," Castillo said. 

The film is only for mature audience. Find more information about the event on our website here.

Visit jcdh.org for information on Naloxone Clinic, where Jefferson County residents in need can receive training on how to handle an opioid overdose. They also provide a free overdose kit containing naloxone, the overdose antidote.

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