Franklin launches new program in fight against heroin

The HOPE program will include:

“We’ve been working on this for 11 months,” Westendorf told city council, which gave its support of establishing the program. “We’re talking about treating an addiction.”

The opioid epidemic has caused stress on emergency services in the city during the past two years due to a rising number of response calls for overdoses, according to the fire chief.

Westendorf said fentanyl and carfentanyl overdoses have increased as well.

He said there has also been a sizable shift in the past two months with methamphetamine. From June 2016 through March 2017 there were two methamphetamine calls, Westendorf said. That number spiked to 18 calls from April to September.

Westendorf said a community forum will be scheduled in the next several weeks that will feature an expert panel and answer questions about the program.

One Franklin resident, Kevin Kash, asked why government should spend money for these programs and Narcan to revive addicts who overdose. He also said resources are needed to get people in recovery to become productive members of society.

Some city council members also expressed concerns about the program appearing to cater to addicts and about the amount of drug activity in the city despite the best efforts of police to stop it.

Residents and leader’s attitudes toward illegal drugs must change if the city wants to change the behavior of addicts, Westendorf said.

“We have to do something. This community has to do something,” he said. “If we don’t change this, we’re going to lose a generation.”

BY THE NUMBERS

287: Number of opioid overdoses Franklin paramedics responded to from January 2016 to September 2017

81: Percentage of overdose calls that involved Franklin residents; 19 percent were non-residents

33: Number of opioid overdose deaths in Franklin from January 2016 to July 23, 2017

Source: Franklin Fire Department