Panel talks drug issues in region, state
Sebastian County Opioid Summit held at ACHE
FORT SMITH — Leaders in drug prevention and rehabilitation gathered Friday for the Sebastian County Opioid Summit, where speakers discussed the current challenges with opioids in the county and state, as well as what the public can do to help.
The summit was held at the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education Research Institute Health and Wellness Center.
Hobe Runion, Sebastian County sheriff, said homelessness, mental health issues and drug addiction are a triad of issues in Fort Smith that all relate to each other. He said while those things will never go away, local groups can work together to provide education, prevention and treatment.
Thomas Fisher, Arkansas state drug director for the Department of Human Services, said the country is seeing an increase in fentanyl usage. He said 500 lethal doses of fentanyl could fit in one sugar packet and that should be concerning considering the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized 77 million pills containing fentanyl in 2023.
“That’s about 386 million lethal doses or potentially lethal doses of fentanyl,” he said. “It’s the largest single-year seizure on record.”
Fisher said undercover law enforcement has found the price for meth has gone down from roughly $9,000 to $2,500 a pound, making its availability increase. He said the DEA seized 700 pounds of meth in Arkansas in 2022, which is close to the 794 pounds seized across the entire Gulf Coast of the country in the same year.
Fisher said drugs, including meth, are being laced with lethal doses of fentanyl and other opioids. He said it’s hard to find correct statistics for overdose as the cause of death for people because prior to 2023, coroners were not required to submit suspected overdoses to the crime lab for analysis in Arkansas.
Fisher presented Arkansas State Crime Lab statistics, which show fatal overdoses decreased from 457 in 2022 to 408 in 2023. The number of fatalities is still a large increase from the 268 the Crime Lab analyzed in 2019.
The Department of Human Services is launching a program in March so the public can get access to the overdose treatment naloxone, Fisher said.
“If it’s an opioid and we identify early and we get naloxone on board, it’s going to work; it’s going to help reverse that overdose,” he said. “I will tell you that it does need further care and a higher level of care and a maintenance of care after that so we don’t have a re-overdose situation because of the amount of opioid in the body.”
Sebastian County Circuit Judge Shannon Blatt said every type of case she deals with can have elements of substance abuse, whether it’s divorce because someone is using substances or awarding guardianship to a family member because the parent is using substances. She said she’s noticed recently parents are transporting fentanyl in their kids’ car seats or overdosing and passing out during supervised visitation.
Blatt said in 2023, 110 of the 218 instances of kids put into foster care in Sebastian County were because the parent or guardian was abusing substances. The foster care system and children’s
court organizations are working hard but are completely overloaded, she said.
One area in which the region and state are lacking is in juvenile inpatient drug treatments, she said.
Kirk Duboise, a certified alcohol and drug counselor, said he started using drugs and alcohol between sixth and seventh grade. He said by the time he was a senior in high school, he was stealing from his parents daily to buy an eighth of an ounce of cocaine.
Duboise said he injected drugs for the first time at 23, which is when his life really started going downhill. He said when he was ready to reach out for help, Fort Smith was full of people that cared, and after a court-sanctioned stint in jail and a rehab facility he was able to get clean.
Duboise said he’s been married to his wife for over 13 years and they have two sons. He said every day doing what he does is an honor and a privilege.
“I look back and I see all those people that just cared,” he said. “I look back, and not that any of them necessarily knew exactly what to do or say or had the right answers, but they cared. And as I look back and see that, today it’s my turn. And I get the privilege and honor and opportunity day in and day out to be there for other people. So really what I want to leave you all with as I leave here today is just that right there, is people matter, no matter what.”