From a reader who attended the Opioid Town Hall meeting at UNA:
Johnny Mack in one sentence confused methadone with methamphetamine. When a professor from UNA was touting the benefits and need for treatments like methadone & suboxone -- he cut her off and moved the conversation forward avoiding any conversation of the only approved treatment for this epidemic according to SAMHSA. Our illustrious Mental Health commissioner who has no clue what she is doing then acted like she didn't know what options were out there even though Shoals Treatment Center and HealthConnect both received grant money to address this epidemic locally.
This was a true political event for the people on the stage including the Attorney General who truly believes the only way to treat them is to incarcerate them and basically wants the cops to be the first receivers of funding to deal with this issue. I was floored and disappointed in the lack of ideas to help the situation and only a defensive attitude of those on the stage who think they know how to deal with it.
If you don't know the difference between methadone and methamphetamine you are part of the problem in this epidemic. You can't arrest our way out of it either...we've been doing that since the 70s...
Mental health is the fix because it's a disease and a nurse who worked in a psych ward for a short stint is not qualified to lead this fight.
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