OPIOID CRISIS MEETING - The Community Foundation of North Louisiana and Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse held a public forum yesterday evening on the Opioid Crisis in NW Louisiana. Four experts weighed in on the various dynamics of addiction before a large audience at the Robinson Film Center. Topics included the history of addiction, family and social dynamics influencing
addictive behaviors, pharmacological issues, and current resources available for persons addicted to opioids . The purpose of the event was to get people more aware of the local problems of opioid abuse… Bill Rose, executive director for the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse explained. "We wanted to open up a dialogue in this community to begin a conversation rather than formulate an idea or continue to create a myth related to addiction. Part of it is to break down the barriers by smashing the stigma associated to substance abuse."
The panel of experts stressed that opioid addiction affects all parts of society. Dr. Nicholas Goeders, head of the Department of Pharmocology, Toxicology, and Neuroscience at LSU-Health Sciences in Shreveport elaborated "To say it's not your problem is just burying your head in the sand because it affects all of us one way or another." A point that Dr. Robert Jackson, founder of the Martin Luther King Health Center in Shreveport agreed with. "In decades past often addiction was restricted to one or two segments of the population. That is no longer the case. Doctors, lawyers, politicians, poor people, homeless people, everyone without exception is affected by this. And certainly we're having more deaths." About 70,000 people die from opioid-related circumstances each year in the United States which is more than auto fatalities or homicides.
If you’d like more information about resources available for opioid or any addiction disorder, the Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse has a website:
cadanwla.org or call: (318) 222-8511
