Stand Up, Mississippi is making an effort to bring awareness to the opioid crisis and holding town meetings throughout the state.
The meeting, “Opioids: What Can You Do?” was held at the Coahoma County Courthouse on July 10.
Steve Parker, deputy director of the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy, said there have been approximately 25 meetings throughout the past year and asked how many pharmacists were in the room.
“The Mississippi Board of Pharmacy has approved two hours of live continuing education credits for attendance to any of town halls,” Parker said after the pharmacists raised their hands.
“We need to do more of these towns halls because these chairs should be full. This is a disease. It doesn’t pick and choose. It picks us all, no matter what socioeconomic background we come from, no matter what race or color, no matter what religion. It affects everyone. It does not discriminate. If it hasn’t affected you, you should be on your knees thanking God that’s the case.”
Parker said it is important to educate families, colleagues and churches about the fight against opioids. He showed a video of Gov. Phil Bryant supporting the organizations efforts.
Local leaders present spoke about the cause.
“This is something I think that is very important for our community and for every community in our country,” Coahoma County Sheriff Charles Jones said. “As you all know, this is something that has hit, took it by storm.”
Jones said unless one knows an individual who has suffered from the opioid crisis, they would not know what it is like.
Clarksdale mayor Chuck Espy was brief.
“Best wishes and let’s end this crisis,” he said.
Angela Mallette, outreach coordinator for Mississippi Department of Mental Health spoke about statistics.
“What I want you to know is most places we go in Mississippi, there are parents and teachers and mailmen who don’t understand and know what opioids are,” Mallette said.
She said prescription drugs can turn into heroin and there is a long process in between.
Mallette said 80 percent of people seen in treatment say opioids came from their doctor. She said the United States makes up five percent of the world’s population, but consumes 80 percent of opioids and has 99.7 percent of all hydrocodone manufactured.
In 2008, she said 32,000 teenagers were admitted to hospitals either seeking opioid or had addiction and, in 2013, the number was up to 50,000.
“These teenagers are not going to the hospital seeking opioids,” Mallette said. “They’re not going there because they’re presenting an addiction and wanting help with an addiction. They’re showing up because they’ve gotten hurt or they are having drug-seeking behaviors. They are wanting cough syrup or wanting some type of pain medication.”
Once doctors and nurses check a patient’s history, they see he or she wants opioids.
From 2004 to 2007, Mallette said studies showed 797 children were admitted to the emergency room for opioid overdoses, but five years later, the number increased to 1,500. In 2017, she said there were 256 overdose deaths in Mississippi and 74 percent were from opioids.
Ann Rodio, project director for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, said marijuana and alcohol are still some of biggest addiction issues people face and anyone with any type of addiction needs to call and ask for help. She added people still think addiction is a choice.
“Nobody wakes up and decides, ‘I think today would be a great day to destroy my life and hopes and dreams,’” Rodio said.
Rodio said people turn to substance to deal with different pains and try to hide how they feel. She said there are mental health centers for residential outpatients with treatments for opioids. She said 51 law enforcement officer lives saved from Naloxone recently. It helps reverse effects of opioids.
There is legislation on the side of those who are addicted.
Rodio mentioned the Good Samaritan Law that offers legal protection to people who give reasonable assistance to those who are, or who they believe to be, injured, ill, in peril, or otherwise incapacitated.
Other speakers at the event included Linda Lary from Greenwood, who lost her son to an opioid addiction; commissioner of the Department of Public Safety Marshall Fisher and executive director of the Sunflower Landing and Fairland Center Shane Garrard.
