Western Carolina University event ‘walks the walk’ on opioid crisis

It’s been said time and time again after forums, panels and public meetings held in communities across the country over the past dozen-odd years: if we could talk our way out of the nation’s opioid crisis, it would have been over a decade ago. 

To reduce overdose deaths, start in the local jail

By Albert M. Kopak • Guest Columnist

You may have a story about Peter, while someone down the road has a similar story about Rose. Mine starts with George, my cousin who died at the age of 38 from an opioid-related overdose.

Such a tragic event will make anyone with a heart pause and reflect, but this is a special case. I am a criminologist who studies drug use in the criminal justice system, and I have thought long and hard about how George’s experience reflects our failure to implement practices designed to reduce crime, enhance public safety and strengthen our communities. We have opportunities to do a better job and change these stories.

Region gathers to find recovery solutions

More than 150 leaders from Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties in North Carolina gathered Aug. 16 in Bryson CIty for the 7 County Western North Carolina Community Summit to discuss strategies about how to collectively create better cooperation in their efforts to encourage lifelong recovery for those suffering from substance use abuse and dependence.

Forced to Fight: Addicts long for life beyond heroin

Editor’s note: Names have been changed to protect the identity of those interviewed for this story. 

Five miles down an Appalachian dirt road 45 minutes from nowhere is where Daphne Laurel was raised, right in the heart of the sparsely populated mountainous region hit hardest by the ongoing opioid crisis. 

KARE child advocacy center helps the county’s most vulnerable

Just off Waynesville’s North Main Street, in one of the town’s most blighted areas, on top of a small hill sits a little green house that many people drive by each day, without noticing it at all. 

Forced to Fight: Law enforcement grapples with opioids in Appalachia

After a routine surgery, Haywood County native Clayton Suggs ended up hooked on opioids until on the first day alone in his new apartment after a year of sobriety, his addiction eventually cost him his life. 

Forced to Fight: Opioid data puts local addiction in context

It was finally moving day, and that empty little Greensboro apartment must have seemed like a mansion to 29-year-old Clayton Suggs. 

Fitting, the lack of furnishings; the whole thing was a blank slate, a new start.

Creating a recovery community: Cherokee holds fourth annual Rally for Recovery

By now, most everyone is familiar — often far too personally — with the toll of the opioid epidemic. Lost lives, stolen futures, vanished trust. Loved ones transformed into unrecognizable ghosts of themselves. Law enforcement, mental health and emergency services pushed past capacity. 

Recovery community looks for new meeting space

Many have probably passed by the Triangle Club on Miller Street in Waynesville without realizing what it was, but those within the recovery community are familiar with the space and know what an impact the clubhouse has in the county. 

Major expansion set to open at Pathways

As homelessness continues to rise in Western North Carolina, Haywood County’s innovative and effective adult shelter is about to cut the ribbon on a brand new dorm designed to be a place of refuge for a critically underserved population. 

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