Healing in the Hood’s “OPS” Coalition hosts Drug Prevention Meeting
For more information on Arkansas drug prevention efforts, and program funding--visit www.arorp.org.
Healing in the Hood’s OPS (Opioids, Prescription drugs, and Synthetics) Coalition held a meeting on Wednesday at Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville to spread awareness about the effects of opioids and the efforts being made towards drug prevention.
Healing in the Hood director Sandy “Bebe” Gillespie explained, “We formed that coalition because a lot of the young people look at each other as “opps” but really they’re not the opps, the drugs they’re putting into their bodies are the opps that cause them to do the things that they do towards one another.”
The event featured several presentations including one from Nina Watson, Healing in the
Hood’s Drug Free Community project coordinator.
“I’m able to bring about awareness about the opioid epidemic in our county Mississippi County, and I’m able to distribute narcan for those that are in an overdose state. And I also do the research to bring about awareness for the trending drugs that are in our county– how to use them, why they are using them, and how to stop using them,” said Watson.
Gillespie added, “Last week we presented a presentation on substance abuse. We had a young man that was getting ready to go buy a ‘Whip It’ he was getting ready to try it spend his money on it. Whip it is nitrous oxide which causes freezing of the lungs and freezing of the throat. That young man after hearing the presentation on the dangers and effects of it, he changed his mind. If we can save one life by presenting to me that’s the greatest reward of all things.”
There were also representatives from Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership (ARORP) who presented at the meeting. They provided stats on several drug prevention programs that have been put in place across the state, and gave insight on how community leaders can obtain funding for additional programs.
ARORP’s deputy director Tenesha Barnes stated, “Without the coalitions in the community we couldn’t do what we do. We put out about 357,000 bringing back into the state around 8.1 million dollars. The biggest impact has been prevention.”
Barnes continued, “Go to the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership website, so you can actually make a difference in your county. What we do is we work for the cities and the counties. We ensure that the funding gets out, but we can’t do it without you. We are going straight up into the communities asking for you to tell us what do you want us to do with this funding”
Gillespie shared his thoughts on what he hopes to see following similar events.
“I’m hoping to see that as we educate our community, our community educates our children and we start to see a decrease in vaping a decrease in popping pills which leads to other things like violence and bullying that we see in our schools. Hopefully with educating our community and disseminating this information we can change what’s going on in our community and our schools, and our community will be better.”
