Marion seminar begins community fight against opioids

Feb. 7—Marion and Lauderdale County residents, school children, law enforcement and elected officials gathered in Marion on Tuesday to learn about opioids and their effects on the community as Marion Police Department held its Our State of Mississippi Fights Opioids & Fentanyl seminar at the Hamasa Temple Shrine.

Police Chief Randall Davis said opioids and addiction impact all parts of the community as the drugs do not discriminate. People from all backgrounds and all walks of life have their lives or the lives of someone they know turned upside down by the potent narcotics.

"It's just something we've got to deal with," he said.

Both Davis and Sheriff Ward Calhoun said the majority of crimes they see can be traced back in some way to drugs. From thefts to homicides, drugs are a key component of much of the criminal activity in Marion, Lauderdale County and beyond.

"The vast, vast majority of the crime in our community has a nexus or a tie to drugs," Calhoun said. "Our thefts, our home burglaries, the problems in the homes many times, the fighting that goes on between rival groups that are trying to sell their commodities on the streets, the violence associated with that, all comes right back around to illegal drugs."

Attendees at Tuesday's seminar heard from Col. Steven Maxwell, director of Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, about how drugs have changed and how the drug culture has changed. Having begun his law enforcement career in 1994, Maxwell said the drugs of today are completely different than the drugs police were focused on when he started.

"There are drugs that exist today, that we deal with, that are ravaging communities every single day that we could never have even imagined that we would have to grapple with," he said.

As science and technology have revolutionized everyday American life, so have they revolutionized the drug trade, Maxwell said. The marijuana of today has a higher THC content, the cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine are more pure, and drugs are much more potent than they once were, he said.

Another change is the introduction of synthetic cannabinoids and opioids such as Fentanyl, Maxwell said. Fentanyl is an important medication commonly used in anesthesia when someone has surgery, but it has become a prominent narcotic in the illegal drug trade, he said.

In addition to being very potent, with 2.5 milligrams enough to kill most people, it is also extremely versatile and often appears mixed in with other substances. Maxwell said law enforcement used to test cocaine and find cocaine. Likewise, heroin would test as heroin and methamphetamine would test as methamphetamine. Now, he said, tests frequently show the presence of fentanyl in addition to the other drugs, making it incredibly dangerous as users often don't know the opioid is present.

"That is today's drug culture," he said.

While the drugs themselves have changed, so to have the methods through which people get the drugs, Maxwell said. Technology, he said, has enabled people to order illegal drugs, pay for them with electronic currency and have them delivered to their home without ever leaving the house. What used to be an in-person exchange can now take place across cities, states and even internationally with ease.

People also have access to legal drugs, Maxwell said, including kratom and CBD products sold in gas stations and other stores across the state. While these products may seem safe because they can be purchased legally, the industry is largely unregulated, he said.

"You don't know what's in them, and we don't know what's in them unless we send them to a lab to be scientifically tested," he said.

Vaping products also fall into the unregulated area between the enforcement powers of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug administration, Maxwell said, and dangerous and addictive substances are sometimes found in the cartridges.

Substance abuse and addiction is a serious problem, Maxwell said, and it will take everyone working together to solve. He encouraged attendees to take the information they learned and use it to help educate others in the community.

"We need you in this fight," he said.

As a self-proclaimed browser of Facebook, Calhoun said it doesn't take much effort to find people with negative things to say about Meridian and the surrounding area, but negativity itself isn't a solution. What the community needs, he said, is people who will fight to make it a better place.

"I want to encourage you, don't give up on our community. Don't give up on your family. Don't give up on yourself," he said. "Let's stay in this fight together. Let's fight the good fight. Our country, our community is worth it."

Calhoun also encouraged residents to reach out to law enforcement when they have information about drugs or other illegal activity going on in their communities. Even the small things can fill in missing pieces in an investigation, he said.

Ronald Turner, a naloxone instructor at the Mississippi Public Health Institute, said another thing residents can do is carry naloxone, also known by the brand name NARCAN, which is used to treat opioid overdoses.

The medication is available to both residents and first responders at odfree.org.

Contact Thomas Howard at thoward@themeridianstar.com