Newspaper Page Text
Wednesday, September 12,2018
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 5A
Group hosts 2nd drug awareness expo
By Jessica Brown
jbrown@dawsonnews.com
For the second year,
Dawson County Friends of
Recovery hosted the Drug
Awareness and Recovery
Expo Sept. 10 to give local
organizations a chance to
come together and address
the topic of substance
abuse in the community.
“We’re here to support
people who are finding
recovery from addiction.
People who are finding
recovery from addiction
have to dare to take that
step to get started, and the
family members of people
who are recovering have to
dare to let them go,” said
Friends of Recovery
President Jessi Evans.
The expo was sponsored
by Dawson County High
School chorus director
Spencer Wright and hosted
in the DCHS common area
where organizations such
as ABBA House, Family
Connection, Al-Anon,
Celebrate Recovery and the
Dawson County Sheriff’s
Office set up booths and
provided information for
those in attendance.
According to Lt.
Murphy, who represented
DSCO at the expo, 4.8 per
cent of the inmates in the
detention center are incar
cerated for drug charges,
and that percentage doesn’t
account for inmates who
are in jail for probation vio
lations stemming from
drug charges or other drug
related incidents.
Murphy attested to the
substance abuse epidemic,
saying that cases of meth-
amphetamine and marijua
na - especially in edible
form - are on the rise, but
that opioid cases are the
main concern.
“Gone are the days of
having to find a drug deal
er,” Murphy said. “Now
you can call them on the
phone and make an
appointment with a doctor
Jessica Brown Dawson County
News
Dawson County High
School principal and
Juno Baptist Church
pastor Brody Hughes
talks during the second
annual Drug Awareness
and Recovery Expo
Sept. 10.
and get the opioids that you
need.”
Because opioid use is on
the rise across the state,
volunteer organizations
like Georgia Overdose
Prevention have worked to
help prevent drug overdos
es by championing new
legislation making
Naloxone, or Narcan, easi
ly accessible to the com
munity and providing
amnesty for those who call
in a drug or alcohol related
emergency.
Narcan is an opioid
antagonist that can reverse
the effects of an overdose.
It is issued to DSCO depu
ties and from June 2017 to
July 2018, local deputies
were able to reverse three
overdoses.
In 2014, Georgia
Overdose Prevention saw
the Georgia 911 Medical
Amnesty Law become
enacted, making it easier
for citizens receive access
to Narcan over the counter.
In the past four years,
1,500 confirmed overdoses
have been reversed with
Narcan.
“Those are second
chances. Those are lives
saved,” said David Laws of
Georgia Overdose
Prevention.
For Laws, providing eas
ier access to the lifesaving
medicine is very personal.
In 2013 his daughter Laura
died from a combination of
alcohol, morphine and
cocaine.
As he addressed the
audience, Laws said
Laura’s life was changed in
her freshman year of high
school when she sustained
a broken jaw from a soccer
injury. She was prescribed
liquid Lortab, which put
her on a path that was hard
to escape.
Laws added that it has
been proven that persons
under the age of 21 who
are prescribed opioids have
an 80 percent chance of
becoming addicted later in
life.
Attesting to the struggle
of opioid addiction in a
story similar to Laura’s was
Liz Bragg, a former opioid
addict whose addiction
began when she was 10
years old.
After sustaining injuries
in a 30-foot fall into a well,
Bragg was prescribed opi
oids for her pain and took
them accordingly. It soon
turned into an escape from
childhood trauma she suf
fered from ages 6 to 9.
After receiving a drug
charge as an adult, she was
admitted into the Dawson
County Treatment Court
and was mandated to join a
group. She found Celebrate
Recovery, which she said
changed her life.
“From the moment I
walked in that door I didn’t
feel not one judgment, not
one criticism for who I had
been in the past,” Bragg
said. “I was loved. I was
somebody again. And even
though I didn’t feel like it
everybody else thought I
was. Everybody accepted
me for who I was regard
less of my mistakes.”
Now, Bragg is a proud
graduate of treatment court
and three years clean with
out a single relapse. She is
now a leader in Celebrate
Recovery to help others
like her.
“I want people to know
that they are enough and I
want to love people where
they’re at regardless of any
circumstance,” Bragg said.
“I don’t care what you’ve
been through. I love you
because God loves us and I
want to shine that light of
Jesus to every person I
come in contact with.”
Over the past three and a
half years, Celebrate
Recovery has seen lives
changed - like Bragg’s -
and families restored,
according to Rev. John
Mason.
“At Celebrate Recovery
we believe that we can
overcome all hurts, habits
and hang ups,” Mason said.
“Every single person here
has something in your life
that is hindering you from
moving forward.”
Seeing the support with
in the DCHS common
areas Monday night,
Mason said he wished he
had known of all the com
munity resources available
when he was a young
addict and encouraged
everyone at the event to
visit each booth and take
home information as well
as get plugged in to one of
the local organizations that
provide support for those
fighting addiction and their
loved ones.
“It takes a collaborative
effort on everybody to do
what we do in this commu
nity,” Mason said.
Each of the evening’s
speakers ended on a note of
hope for everyone who has
been affected by substance
abuse.
“There’s no body in this
room that is not affected in
some way by someone’s
drug and alcohol abuse
whether that’s you as the
addict or whether that’s a
family member, a son or a
daughter or mother or dad
or sibling - each and every
one of us is affected by
those things,” said DCHS
principal and Juno Baptist
Church pastor Brody
Hughes. “I have a close
family member that is an
addict and is on the path of
recovery. And for years I
knew this was going on in
his life and I didn’t know
what to do about it...
“Finally one day we got
together and went to him
and I just said ‘I’m here for
you. I just want you to get
better. We care about you
and we know this has been
going on in your life. What
can we do?’ And I will
never forget the words he
said to me. He said ‘What
took you so long?”’
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