United Way for Clinton County and Center Township of Clinton County had their fourth of six conversations on the drug issue in Frankfort and Clinton County Wednesday afternoon at the Frankfort Community Public Library.
A total of 62 individuals attended the event to hear a panel of political leaders comprised of Frankfort Mayor Chris McBarnes, State Senator Brian Buchanan of Lebanon and Doug Huntsinger, who is a member of Governor Eric Holcomb’s Indiana Commission to Combat Drug Abuse which is under the direction of Chairman Jim McClelland.
“It was great to see our State Senator Brian Buchanan working with our mayor and talking about initiatives with the city and how they can partner with the state,” said Center Township Trustee Kevin Evans. “I thought it was great to hear our mayor say the city wants to have funds for rehabilitation programs in the budget. That is a big thing for our city.”
McBarnes began the conversation by saying alcohol addiction has been in his life from a family member.
“Drugs, alcohol and violence are all demonstrative things in our lives,” said McBarnes. “We need more prayer power and not police power. This is going to take all of us to get rid of this issue.”
McBarnes said some of the initiatives undertaken by his administration include the Clinton County Drug Task Force, Narcotics Investigation Unit, as well as adding two K9s to the Frankfort Police Department. He added there will be a uniformed School Resource Officer in all Frankfort schools starting this fall.
Buchanan said this event was kind of the first step and there is no silver bullet to take care of this.
“There are a lot of county jails that are overcrowded or at capacity right now,” said Buchanan. “If you talk to most of the sheriffs, they say that about 60 to 70 percent (of the inmates) are drug or opioid related.”
Buchanan also said this is a mental health issue as well and the drug and opioid problem has had a $1.5 billion impact on the state.
Buchanan also told a story about an individual who was arrested by authorities.
“He said when he got arrested, he thanked the deputies for arresting him,” said Buchanan. “The deputies asked him why. He simply responded ‘because when I’m in jail, it’s the only time I can be clean and not use drugs.’ I believe that it’s a sad comment and a disturbing comment.”
Buchanan added it’s going to take all of us to take care of this issue.
“We cannot arrest our way out of this,” he said. “We have a long way to go to address this issue.”
Huntsinger said Governor Holcomb has put a lot of significance on this problem.
“The state is doing as much as we can and we have much more to do,” said Huntsinger. “This issue and all parts of if this are complex. We have to make it easy for the people to get into the treatment facilities that we have available.”
Evans added there is a big day coming up related to the drug and opioid problem in the area.
“We have our sights set on our Overdose Awareness Day coming up on August 31,” he said. “I think the Substance Abuse Team that has been developed is something we have to get out to the community and let them know it’s there.”
Before that, there will be another conversation in June about the community programs that are available in addition to the release of the United Against Opiate Abuse Project data on July 25.