Agencies join forces to fight crisis
A new leader will head Franklin County’s collaborative attempt to eradicate the heroin crisis.
David Royer, chief executive officer of the county Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board, will lead a new committee created to marshal all of the area’s anti-addiction resources and agencies to fight the opioid epidemic. He was appointed at a meeting Thursday that was called by County Commissioner John O’Grady and Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther to address the crisis.
Sometime next year, Ohioans will be able to visit any of 60 medical marijuana shops open up to 14 hours a day.
They will be able to buy plant material to vaporize and inhale, plus marijuanainfused oils, tinctures, edibles and patches.
There are still some no-nos. Home delivery of pot will not be permitted, smoking and home-growing are not allowed, and your favorite local marijuana shop won’t be allowed to sell you a T-shirt.
But the Buckeye State’s foray into marijuana for medical purposes is well underway six months after the law took effect.
Revised rules for marijuana dispensaries were released Thursday by the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, including boosting the number of marijuana dispensaries to 60 from 40 as previously set. The number could go even higher because rules include
They hope a united group working to solve the problem will appeal to federal and state lawmakers who dole out millions of dollars to battle the epidemic, O’Grady said.
“We need to put that together all in one place,” Ginther told more than a dozen leaders of those agencies Thursday.
County Coroner Anahi Ortiz had been leading the fight against heroin, but O’Grady and Ginther said they preferred the collaborative approach with ADAMH as lead agency. At the meeting, Ortiz presented an alternative plan in which her office would share leadership with ADAMH and the city and county public health departments.
O’Grady appointed Royer to head a “community action plan” so police, fire, public health, hospitals and others no longer focus on their individual heroin battles. With the creation of the committee, those agencies will have one plan all agencies will follow — and fund.
“You’re where we can direct more dollars,” O’Grady told Royer.
The ADAMH Board and it’s $80 million annual budget fund addiction treatment and rehabilitation in Franklin County. The agency receives $57 million from a countywide property tax. A major complaint from police, EMS and other emergency workers is there aren’t enough beds for rehab or treatment.
Because there aren’t enough treatment beds, many who have overdosed and been revived by naloxone have to be taken to a hospital, where they often walk out in search of more drugs.
“We have a dearth of treatment options in our community,” Columbus City Council President Zach Klein said at the meeting. “The waiting lists are long. We need to put some real money behind solving such an important crisis in our community.”
The collaboration and hoped-for additional money to fight it are necessary, Ginther said, because years into the fight, it’s getting worse. Columbus has two residents die from heroin overdoses each day, Ginther said, noting the toll is higher than from homicides.
Royer now has to craft a comprehensive plan detailing the collaboration. It will be presented to the new committee by late May.
“It’s what we do — drug treatment, prevention and education,” Royer said. “Now, we’re tapping that in a more formalized structure.
“It’s a long-term challenge.”
The challenge is to support families of active addicts as well as those of addicts who have died, Royer said, while better educating the community on heroin’s scourge.
“It is not a hopeless proposition,” Royer said.
An educational key already has happened, based on comments by committee members at Thursday’s meeting. Many, including representatives from police, EMS and hospitals, now treat the addiction issue not as a criminal offense but as a disease of the brain that can be treated with the correct plan.
“We want to see what we can do to save lives,” O’Grady said.