MANSFIELD — Healing Hearts Counseling Center changed the tone of discussion surrounding the heroin epidemic Monday during a conference hosted at its Park Avenue location.

Instead of spewing statistics to reinforce the community’s drug overdose issue, the organization focused on success stories and discussed strategies being employed to reverse the situation.

The audience was comprised of authorities from law enforcement and government, medical professionals and recovering addicts — all integral parts of solving the evasive problem, said DEA Agent Steve Moluse.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem. It takes enforcement, treatment and prevention,” he said.

Freese works as a Diversion Investigator with the DEA. His primary focus is making sure legal prescription drugs are staying off the street and being prescribed properly by doctors and physicians.

He said the most prevalent drugs are opiate pain killers. The pain killers, and suboxone, are being prescribed by pain physicians who have decided to sell them because their sale is nearly guaranteed.

“They know they can make a lot of money,” Moluse said.

Suboxone, one of the highest sellers of the pain physicians, has been sold to treat pain and narcotic addiction, he said.

“But it (suboxone) has a lot of street credibility, and it’s being resold out on the streets,” he said.

Once users are hooked to those to treat pain, he said, the next step is using heroin, which now is being laced with dangerous doses of fentanyl and carfentanil. The two synthetic opioids are suspected to be manufactured in Mexico and China.

Two milligrams of fentanyl is lethal to a human. Freese said carfentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl.

“It’s commonly used on large animals, like elephants,” he said.

Moluse said he is working to curb the openings of what he called “suboxone hives” because he believes treatment and rehabilitation sites are much more effective in fighting against the drug problem.

Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services Director Tracy Plouk said the problem is growing. She cited a statistic calculated by the Ohio Department of Health that states there were 3,050 unintentional overdose deaths in Ohio in 2015.

But the focus should be on delivering hope, she said.

“The circumstances are traumatic and traumatizing, but recovery is possible,” Plouk said. “Seeing this possibility brings hope.”

Four of Healing Hearts’ patients attended the conference. They all stood to be acknowledged and encouraged by an applauding crowd as Healing Hearts Counseling Center Director of Operations DeWayne Lee spoke on their road to recovery.

The range of sobriety was anywhere from years to months — and they all have jobs within the community.

“Ed here is the maintenance director for our building. He has a key and knows all the codes. There was a time when he couldn’t have those things,” he said, laughing. “But we trust him now. He’s doing well.”