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Summit focuses on Mecklenburg County's opioid crisis

By Blaine Tolison, wsoctv.com
By Blaine Tolison, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, NC — More than 500 deaths in Mecklenburg County are blamed on opioid abuse. It's a staggering number and it's on the rise.

The problem was the focus of a summit at the Charlotte Convention Center on Thursday where former drug addicts, doctors, and counselors came together to come up with solutions.

The same summit held last year attracted a little over 100 people. Thursday, more than 600 people showed up according to the Mecklenburg County Health Department.

The summit was designed to show how many lives and families are affected by the growing opioid crisis and disclosed staggering statistics.

The number of people in the county who died from opioid overdoses skyrocketed to 525 in 2017 from 361 in 2016.

While the summit was full, about 100 people were on a waiting list.

Dick Beardsley, who is known as a marathon legend and at one point could once run two marathons back-to-back, told the crowd even he couldn't break the addiction alone.

"The more we can talk about the disease of addiction, a quicker we're going to get results and help others with it,” Beardsley said.

Mecklenburg County Health Director Gibbie Harris said that, so far in 2018, the number of overdose deaths are slightly down from last year.

She said it's no indication things are getting better.

"What we're seeing is an increase in the number of kids that are experimenting, but also is for that trend to continue into college,” Harris said.

Harris said she wants more state and federal dollars spent on awareness and health care coverage for treatment.

Many took what they learned at the summit as a sign that more resources are coming.

"The word’s getting out there,” Beardsley said. “We know there's an epidemic of opioid abuse now and our country and finally things are starting to happen."

The summit is the second local event this week to draw attention to the opioid crisis.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Josh Stein asked the community to turn over their unused prescription pills and he's touring the state.

Nationally, lawmakers in Washington are debating a spending bill with more than $3 billion in it to fund the opioid fight.

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