Kids: Easy to obtain drugs
By Dean Shipley
Staff Writer
From out of their own mouths, an increased percentage of boys and girls in Madison County say it’s easy to get drugs.
It is one “most significant” statistics Sherry Baldwin shared Tuesday afternoon with members of the Madison County Substance Abuse Coalition.
Baldwin, coordinator for Department of Family and Children of Job and Family Services, was among those committee chairs who shared reports of activity in their appointed areas for the coalition for the past two years.
In her report Baldwin recorded where students said they obtained their drugs. “An increase from 12.04 percent in 2011 to 15.07 percent in 2012 identified they received their drugs from another adult.”
Other parts of her survey — 892 students were surveyed in 2011, 836 students in 2012 — indicate:
• 32.78 percent of students surveyed this year said they had attended parties where parents allowed minors to drink.
• Students were asked where they got their drugs. An increase of 12 percent in 2011 to 15 percent in 2012 identified they received their drugs from another adult.
Baldwin said that statistic concerned her. She said the survey did not identify who that “another adult” was.
“Another adult is somehow facilitating this,” she said.
She was also concerned about the following:
• There was an increase in the percentage of students who said they had never used marijuana, cocaine, inhalants, stimulants or sedatives, methamphetamine, heroin and other illegal drugs.
• Conversely there was an increase in the percentage of students who have used alcohol and tobacco.
Roselin Runnels, communications director for the Mental Health Recovery Board of Clark, Greene and Madison Counties, presented graphs showing the treatment costs, clients with alcohol, cocaine, opiate dependence and clients with all substance disorder treatment and opiate dependence treatment for the last four years, from 2009 to 2012.
One of the most dramatic changes occurred in treatment costs. In 2009, opiate dependence treatment cost $101, 679 and AMC (alcohol, marijuana and cocaine treatment cost $123,703. By 2012, AMC costs dropped to $81,185 and Opiate treatment cost jumped to $277,248.
She said the latter was due to the cost of medicine-assisted treatment.
“It’s more expensive,” she said. “We have to offer best practical treatment to folks. It costs us more. It’s a stretch.”
She said clients can pay some, either through Medicaid, levy dollars, some may have private insurance. Some money comes from Ohio Drug and Alcohol Treatment (ODATA)
Roger Roberts, Emergency Management manager, said for purposes of education and awareness, his committee was able to enact a number of initiatives to get the word out, including:
• Articles in the Madison Press
• Information placed on pizza boxes, “box toppers.”
• Information placed on bags for prescriptions at the Kroger pharmacy
• Display at the Madison County Fair
• Worked with real estate agents, who provided bags to homeowners, who were selling their homes, to temporarily empty their medicine cabinets of drugs into the bags and remove them from the premises during open house showings.
