ASHLAND – As heroin and other opioids continue to ravage Ohio’s cities, several members of the Ashland community are joining forces to raise awareness of the issue and provide support.
Ashland Public Library, in partnership with Dorea Kellem of Truly Yours, Fashion, and Debbie Brown of Enjoy! Gourmet Gifts & Specialties, is hosting a symposium on heroin awareness at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27.
How serious is the heroin problem? According to 2014 estimates by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, more than 435,000 Americans regularly use heroin. Every day, 78 people die from an opiate overdose, 28 of them from heroin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Ohio alone, the number of fatal heroin overdoses reached 1,424 in 2015, up from just 87 in 2003.
Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell, Det. Brian Evans of the Ashland Police Department/METRICH unit, and representatives from Starfish Project of Richland County will speak at Thursday’s event. Tunnell and Evans have seen up-close the effect heroin has had on Ashland County.
According to Evans, there have been 40 reported overdoses in Ashland County this year, 11 of them fatal, an increase from 15 overdoses in 2014 with 3 deaths.
“In August of this year alone we had 12 overdoses and four deaths,” Evans said. “
The detective said they started seeing heroin sold in Ashland in 2008 but it was much less common than what they are seeing now. Earlier this year, law enforcement in this area started seeing heroin cut with fentanyl and other types of potent opioids, leading to the increase in overdoses.
“I want people to know that Ashland is a good place but (heroin) is affecting everybody and it can affect anybody,” Evans said. “The more people that know about it, the more chance of getting more help or resources out there and more knowledge about what to look for from a family member or friend may save somebody from overdosing.”
Starfish Project is a non-profit group from Richland County which specializes in raising and providing funds to be used by individuals struggling with addiction to participate in a faith-based, residential rehabilitation program called Teen Challenge (which is a program for teens and adults).
Kellem and Brown have been striving this year to raise awareness of the heroin problem through several community events.
“I’m super passionate about people. I see another way out – life is too beautiful. Many people use drugs as a form to escape reality, but if they only knew that real reality is what you make it. You can be anyone you want to be. It just takes the right people to see that in someone, and I’m one of them,” Kellem said.
Kellem said she became concerned about the heroin problem after her cousin who she was very close to overdosed on the drug.
“I knew I had to be a voice for him and for anyone battling this disease,” Kellem said. “There is hope and I am here to show people that life is more than that. I believe we are all here for a purpose. Some are just lost. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want better.”
Kellem is working to start a program for drug abusers in Ashland and is planning a fundraiser for early 2017. She also is selling signs for $20 that say “Keep heroin out of our neighborhood” and funds from those sales will also go toward starting the program.
Ashland Public Library has current educational books, magazines, and journals pertaining to drugs and addiction available through the public access catalog, which include items from other libraries within their consortium, SEO (Serving Every Ohioan). There is also a link to an Ohio website, StartTalking.gov, in the Heroin Awareness event listing (as well as in the Databases and Online Resources section under Services and Resources) of www.ashland.lib.oh.us, which is a resource for parents, mentors, and peers of youth to start conversations about drugs and their dangers.
This symposium is an opportunity for all Ashland County citizens to learn of the severity of the issue and its direct impact on their lives, ask questions of the people who combat the epidemic in their daily work, and get involved in saving lives.
For more information on the event, please contact the library at 419-289-8188 or visit www.ashland.lib.oh.us.
