Jim McClelland, the state's executive director for Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement, speaks at the Opioid Drug Summit at IU Kokomo on Monday. Staff photo by Tim Bath
KOKOMO — Community, business and political leaders gathered on the campus of Indiana University Kokomo Monday afternoon, seated in two lines of round-top, white-cloth covered tables, and engaged each other on one of the deadliest problems to ever face Howard County.
The Opioid Drug Summit, organized by Howard County Commissioner Paul Wyman, saw those same officials bounce around a number of potential solutions— ranging from a syringe exchange program to increased sober living opportunities — and welcome Jim McClelland, appointed earlier this year by Gov. Eric Holcomb to serve as the state's executive director for Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement.
McClelland, who spoke bluntly about the ongoing struggles, was preceded, however, by the event’s first speaker, someone who knows better than any official in attendance the front lines of the opioid crisis.
Coroner Steve Seele, in his first year, stood in front of an IUK backdrop and informed the crowd that 2017 will soon be the most lethal year for overdoses in Howard County history.
As of Monday morning, Howard County had experienced 31 confirmed drug overdose deaths, with six more cases pending toxicology results. The investigations into those six deaths, though, show that they are overdoses, said Seele.
“That has surpassed anything that we have had in this county,” said Seele. The highest number coming into this year was 34 overdose deaths in 2015; there were 24 overdose deaths in 2016.
Seele noted that 21 of the confirmed 2017 cases are opiate-related, 12 of which are from heroin. Nine of the deaths involve fentanyl. And methamphetamine, along with mixed-drug overdoses, are still playing a role, he said.
“I have to say, I did not expect to have happen what we’ve had happen in this county starting in January, though I know that we had a problem,” said Seele.
“I don’t know what the answer is, I’m lost. I’m asked that every day.”
Previously, and currently, on the front lines of that same battle was Morgan Vetter, a recovering addict who was injured in a 2008 shooting that left her friend, Abby Rethlake, dead. Vetter followed Seele as a featured speaker at the drug summit.
Vetter, who was given a wide round of applause after announcing that she’s been clean since 2014, said she never expected to “be in a place like this.”
“My recovery is everything, because today I have hope, today I have freedom and today I have peace,” she said.
“The importance of being able to step out on the ledge and help somebody else, I don’t think anybody could ever fathom the peace that that brings inside my being,” added Vetter, noting that she now works at a drug and alcohol treatment center. “If there’s anything that this community needs more, it is people to reach out and help those that can’t help themselves.”
Vetter’s speech was followed by local officials in the room drawing up, table by table, both short- and long-term solutions to the drug crisis. The lists included the need for a treatment facility and more recovery housing, more intensive treatment at the Howard County Jail, making drug education a part of school curriculum, increasing access to Narcan, minimizing the over-prescribing of prescription drugs and more.
It was then time for McClelland, the former CEO of Goodwill, to take the stage.
McClelland noted in his speech that it’s always easier to get high than it is to get help, necessitating the need for immediate access and expansion to drug treatment and prevention opportunities.
“A broad-based community effort is incredibly important,” he said, commending local officials while highlighting the areas to improve. “You’ve got that here. You’ve got it.”
And as McClelland acknowledged, the rate of opioid prescription in Indiana may be down — the rates have dropped 21.4 percent from 2013 to 2016 — but the state still has the 11th highest opioid prescription rate in the country.
Prescription abuse has been credited in large part for Howard County’s current drug epidemic, following the shutdown of the Wagoner Medical Clinic in 2013. Officials raided the two Wagoner Medical Clinic branches in March 2013, arresting several clinic doctors and employees roughly a month later in a case put together by Kokomo police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officers.
Prosecutors say more than two dozen people died as a result of the illegal prescribing practices at the facility. It has likely caused dozens more deaths, as people have since moved from prescription drugs to easier to obtain and cheaper drugs like heroin.
Additionally, McClelland, who spoke fervently in favor of Narcan, said it is important to have “complimentary public health and public safety approaches to this; they have to work with each other, not against each other. And we can’t do everything at once.”
In an interview after the event, McClelland said recovery and prevention efforts can be best completed at a local level, and noted the need for law enforcement to break up “the supply chain” but also provide addicts the ability to seek help.
“The treatment needs to be available when and where it’s needed, and at a time when a person says, ‘I’m ready for help,’ or, ‘I want help,’ then let’s get them help then, because three days, or four days, or a week from now might be too late,” he said, noting that the state will likely be receiving resources for residential treatment and recovery support services and is currently working on a solution for the challenges faced by local jails."
And it’s Wyman’s hope moving forward for the day’s event to turn into more than a conversation.
“What we have before us today is one of the struggles. But looking around this room, I’m confident that we will take this head on, we’ll continue this work and we will make great progress in reducing the numbers and helping families…get where they need to be,” he said.
© 2024 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.