Town hall at Hickman High School discusses possible solutions to drug overdoses
COLUMBIA, Mo (KMIZ)
The Boone County Overdose Response Coalition and Boone County Public Health and Human Services hosted a town hall meeting on Tuesday night at Hickman High School to discuss the ongoing drug overdose crisis.
The coalition included a nine-person panel which included community activists, health professionals, the Columbia Police Department Chief, as well as the Boone County Fire Protection District Chief and Columbia Fire Department Chief.
The goal of the town hall was to engage with community members and gather feedback on how to best address the crisis. All attendees received a supply of naloxone.
According to the Columbia Police Department, there were 13 confirmed fatal overdoses in Columbia last year, which was down from the 2022 total of 18. In 2023, MUPD responded to three off-campus incidents that noted naloxone administration.
“This is a Columbia problem. This is a Boone County problem. This ain’t just a black problem this ain’t just a white problem. This is an us problem,” the Rev. Charles Stephenson Jr., who is a pastor at Powerhouse Ministries, said during the town hall. “It’s going to take us to solve the problem.”
Much of the discussion focused on providing more resources to those seeking treatment, reducing the stigma of drug users that prevents many people from going to treatment, and finding ways to prevent people from becoming addicted.
CPD Chief Jill Schlude said before the meeting that the overdose crisis is an issue that affects every community in Columbia.
“If you see the map there’s overdose deaths all over the city,” Schlude said.
Schlude has been serving CPD for more than 18 years and said that the drug crisis is always something that law enforcement has been aware of, but the main variable over the years has been the type of drugs causing the problem.
“When I got into law enforcement, methamphetamine was the big issue. And now ,we’ve gone from methamphetamine to heroin to a lot of the different opioids and now were kind of at the 'fentanyl' phase. I’ve seen different arcs of this, and unfortunately, this is a continuation of that,” Schlude said.
She says one of the biggest challenges law enforcement faces is trying to balance helping users of the drug while also trying to catch the ones dealing the drugs.
“You have people who are baseline users and that is oftentimes very different from the people who are distributing the drugs. Not saying that they don’t use narcotics as well but the user end, they are not necessarily the profiteers of this. So our goal is obviously to deal with people who are dealing narcotics,” Schlude explained.
She added that the Good Samaritan law has also helped.
“That’s the reason more people are willing to call. That doesn’t mean they always stick around after they call but the big thing is that they are calling and getting emergency services there quickly so someone can administer Narcan,” Schlude said.
Columbia saw a decrease in confirmed overdose deaths from 2022 (18 confirmed deaths) to 2023 (13).
Schlude said there has been more of a defined focus on attacking the drug problem state and county wide which has helped contribute to the decrease.
