Some addicts face hostility

Ohio’s continuing addictions epidemic is leading to fatigue among people working to save overdose victims and outright hostility toward addicts by some community members, officials battling the epidemic said Wednesday at a forum that looked at the biggest challenges presented by the epidemic and explored top-priority solutions.

Columbus emergency room physician Dr. Ryan Squier described the attitude encounters regularly when trying to stress to people the scope of the problem: “Not my child, not my area.”

The forum, held in Pickerington, was sponsored by the Ohio News Media Association and the Ohio Association of Broadcasters.

Cheri Walter, executive director of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities, said she’s never before seen such an acute addiction crisis in her 35 years in the field.

Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp said treatment, education and enforcement are keys to addressing the epidemic. Deputies began taking overdose victims to detox centers under a program Tharp launched three years ago.

Too many people have a negative attitude toward addicts — as if they aren’t worth saving because they’ve brought their problems upon themselves, said Jennifer Lloyd, director of drug abuse outreach initiatives with the office of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. But such opinions don’t fit the reality of the epidemic, she said, telling the story of a 14-yearold boy injected with heroin by his father.

The epidemic driven by prescription painkillers and heroin is being called the worst in the country’s history. In Ohio, 3,050 died from overdose in 2015, and the number is expected to rise.

The state’s approach must be as urgent as if 10 people a day were dying from terrorism or a new plague, said DeWine, keynote speaker at the forum. DeWine, a Republican expected to run for governor next year, said if elected he would push for mandatory K-12 anti-addiction education as part of the state’s efforts to fight the epidemic.