Imagine leading with solutions to opioid epidemic

The Enquirer’s “Seven Days of Heroin” –  the special report in the paper and the video – was much to digest and the front-page news continues with Sunday’s story about the need for treatment on demand.  As a mom, a private citizen and an advocate for drug prevention/education and treatment for decades, I am not willing to accept the new normal.   Addiction and our current opioid epidemic are paramount in my run for Cincinnati City Council.   

As a mom, I want all young people to thrive and be the best version of themselves.  As parents and caregivers, we need to be just as aware of our children’s mental health as their physical health.  Drug prevention education works and I continue to advocate for sound prevention strategies. 

If we can let go of the stigma and openly discuss mental health, addiction and the use of drugs – both prescription and illegal – to dull feeling and sooth pain, we will begin to chip away at the root of the issue.   To prevent drug use, we need ongoing family and community conversations about mental health, addiction, how we handle stress and pain. 

As a citizen, I have witnessed our local opioid/heroin epidemic trend upward over the last decade.  Cincinnati at the epicenter of this issue – a public health emergency that impacts every one of our city’s 52 neighborhoods. 

As a candidate, I began sharing my comprehensive plan to address our current public health crisis early this year  ("Drug addiction is a disease, not a personal failing"), addressed City Council at a June budget hearing to implore them to do something meaningful today, not “after the election” or in the next budget cycle and released my comprehensive plan on my website last week.   

Addiction changes a person’s brain chemistry, which can drive someone to do things they would never do otherwise.  For example, we’re watching the rates of human trafficking increase, increased street crime resulting from compulsive behavior, and increased panhandling in the urban core.  

As I talk with groups throughout Cincinnati, from neighborhood community councils to the Chamber of Commerce and the Fraternal Order of Police, I’m discussing the devastating impact drug addiction and our current opioid epidemic are having on everything else, from public safety to child welfare, workforce development to poverty, crime and our justice system.

Police, firefighters and other first responders are being called to drug overdoses in record numbers - numbers that have been increasing for years.  These emergencies are reallocating limited resources from non-drug related calls where there’s gun violence, a car crash or a medical emergency.   

It’s time to decriminalize the disease of addiction to keep nonviolent drug users out of the overcrowded Hamilton County jail.   If we approach this issue with a sound plan that starts with prevention and incorporates alternatives to jail for all drug users, from crack cocaine to opiates, then we promote better health and save taxpayers money.  

This is not a political issue, which is another reason I’m running as an independent candidate.  We need to work together.  We need to acknowledge that when crack cocaine was tearing African American families apart in the 80s and 90s, users were sent to jail.  We can work together across racial lines as long as alternatives to incarceration, are available for all drug use.  

Hamilton County Coroner, Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, who has endorsed me for Cincinnati City Council, has been vocal about the need to increase resources for prevention/education and provide acute care detox followed by medically-assisted treatment as alternatives to incarceration.  These are among the same solutions I’m advocating as part of a comprehensive plan, and the same solutions that are backed by evidence-based research. 

Cincinnati has a reputation for being a focal point in the current opiate and heroin addiction epidemic.  We deserve better.  

I suggest we reverse direction through leadership and collaboration to fight against the drug epidemic that is killing people, destroying families and costing our community millions of dollars.  I want to see Cincinnati become the national leader, not based on the number of overdoses we have, rather by becoming the leader in turning this terrible epidemic around.  

Tamie Sullivan is a small business owner and a candidate for Cincinnati City Council.  She is a resident of Hyde Park.