CHOP Slates Opioid Summit

The following is an article from Republic-Monitor writer, Alex Heeb.

An Opioid Summit, sponsored by the Coalition for Heroin and Opioid Prevention (CHOP), in the works for this Thursday in Perryville. 

Organizers hope the event, which will feature several high-profile speakers, and general information about the developing opioid crisis, will orient the community toward finding solutions to lessen the impact and helping struggling individuals.

“Three years ago when I took over in this position, I really knew that St. Louis had an epidemic going on,” said Cpl. Jeri Cain of the Perryville Police Department, who, along with Perry County Mental Health Liaison Cindy Blacklidge, was largely responsible for the formation of CHOP. 

“I wanted to do something here to start educating people and to try to combat the situation before we became an epidemic city as well. Because, generally speaking, anything that trends in St. Louis usually takes about two years to filter down to us. I knew we were on a limited time frame.”

The organization which, according to Cain is “made up of agencies in and around Perry County that have a stake in opioid and heroin crisis that we are in” was formally launched in February 2017. Thursday’s event, its third major community meeting, will feature State Reps. Rick Francis, who represents a portion of Perry County, and Holly Rehder, who represents the Jefferson City area. Both politicians have been working towards legislation to improve the opioid situation.

One of the major improvements over the past year has been the introduction of prescription drug monitoring systems, which Cain said allow doctors to better detect when a patient might be abusing drugs.

“What it does is through the (Perry County) Health Department, doctors voluntarily sign up for it,” she said. “They can see if they are doctor shopping. They can see who they’ve been to. What kind of prescriptions they are filling, and that sort of thing, so they can see if this person may have an addiction issue.”

In addition to general information about the opioid crisis, the meeting will also feature a talk from a recovering addict, a panel discussion and a public question and answer session. The meeting will be at the Perry Park Center Theater, with doors opening at 6 p.m., and the presentation running from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.