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DeWine brings drug addiction professionals together for community forum
BENJAMIN WHITE
Associate Editor
Published: February 11, 2014
Despite the dense crowd overflowing from the doors of the meeting room, a pained silence hung as China Darrington recounted her battles with heroin.
Darrington, the well-spoken founder of the local recovery support service XIX, commanded the room’s attention with her memories of two months of inpatient addiction treatment while pregnant and the unspeakable abuse she endured from a dealer.
“We always think we’re going to get one more free shot, but we don’t,” she said.
The audience remained rapt throughout the third community forum organized by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, held last month at the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s downtown branch. A panel of police, addiction specialists, and Summit County Juvenile Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio addressed the alarming rise in heroin use – and deaths – in Ohio the last few years.
“Part of what I’m trying to do, frankly, is to use the bully pulpit of the office to say, ‘Look, we have a problem,’” DeWine said.
“We cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” said the Republican attorney general. “This is not only a supply problem – it certainly is a demand problem, and that’s where local communities can make a difference.”
According to DeWine, the annual tally of deaths directly caused by heroin has increased from 200 in 2010 to over 800 in 2013. He also cited a Scioto County study that suggested heroin causes nearly as many indirect deaths.
DeWine held the community forum as part of his statewide campaign to draw attention to the epidemic and one of his solutions: A new $1 million heroin unit under his administration that will bolster investigation teams, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and drug education throughout problem areas. The new initiative will make available specialty prosecutors and investigators to local law enforcement struggling with the heroin’s rise.
Judge Teodosio, who assumed the juvenile bench in 2003, said that her court had not yet seen a spike in heroin use in minors, though she’s expecting a wave to come in the near future.
“I think generally when the adults use it and it becomes more commonplace, the kids will migrate to that,” said Kevin Floyd, a placement coordinator at the juvenile court.
To prepare, Judge Teodosio started the Family Reunification through Recovery Court, a new specialty docket recently certified by the Ohio Supreme Court. The new program will address the trauma of addiction in families brought before the court by Summit County Children Services. The specialty court will focus on the indirect effects of drug use in an effort to shield the next generation from addiction.
“I think by dealing with the trauma issues and giving kids coping skills, we can not only help the family to mend, but also prevent some of these issues from happening down the road,” Judge Teodosio said.
The family drug court is set to start next month thanks to a recent federal three-year grant of over $530,000.
Judge Teodosio also addressed the decade-old Crossroads drug and mental health probation supervision, which she created to help addicted delinquents.
“The vast majority of the kids that go through the program have substance abuse, but they also have a co-occurring mental disorder,” Judge Teodosio said. “They drive each other.
“We as a community have a long history of dealing with addiction through treatment,” she said.
Also on the panel sat Dr. Lisa Kohler, the Summit County medical examiner.
“The majority of the illicit drug deaths we have in Akron involve heroin,” Kohler said.
She also said that heroin – unlike its past epidemics – now seems to know no boundary of race, age or wealth.
Greg Johnson, the medical director of Akron Community Health Center also sat on the panel and agreed. He said many heroin users started off on legitimate prescription opiates but turned to heroin for the significantly lower price.
On the law enforcement side of the panelists’ table, Inspector William Holland of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office proposed a twofold attack – he recounted a recent widespread takedown of heroin dealers that resulted in nearly 30 arrests but also stressed treatment and education.
Akron Police Chief James Nice spoke plainly and focused on cracking down on drug dealers. He recounted how just the day before he had visited the scenes of two drug-related shootings, one of which took place in front of young children.
“Some people in our community need to have accountability. We need to have accountability for our drug dealers,” Nice said. “I’m okay with rehabilitation for drug users.
“You can rehabilitate some users, but I’m not for rehabilitating heroin dealers. I’ve seen enough dead bodies.”