PAULDING — A community drug and opiate forum is being planned for Paulding in May.
The Paulding County Republican Women are organizing the event, which will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. May 10 at the Paulding County OSU Extension Building. The event is free and open to the public. A light dinner will be provided during the event, with free-will donations accepted.
“The reason why we decided to host the forum is during one of our meetings Tim Monico (regional liaison for northwest Ohio from Ohio Secretary of State’s office) came to speak and using napkins he said ‘if you have heroin, you can overdose on this much,’ ‘if you have fentanyl, you can overdose on this much’ and ‘if you have carfentanil, you can overdose on this much,” said Laurie Lucas, president of the Paulding County Republican Women.
She said the amount of carfentanil was very small. The National Institute of Health categorizes it as”one of the most potent opiods known”’ with “a quantitative potency approximately 10,000 times that of morphine and 100 times that of fentanyl.”
“Drug dealers are now lacing marijuana with carfentanil, which is a synthetic (opioid) drug,” Lucas said. “People need to be aware of how dangerous it is.”
Several speakers have been lined up for the event including: Paulding County Common Pleas Court Judge Tiffany Beckman, a graduate from the Paulding County Drug Court program, Juvenile Court Judge Michael Wehrkamp, diversion/attendance office Elizabeth Zartman, Sheriff Jason Landers and other law enforcement representatives, State Rep. Craig Riedel, Mercer County assistant prosecutor Amy Ikerd and Randi Ostry with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Organizers also are looking to get a doctor and Monico to speak as well. Speakers will discuss what they are seeing in their respective fields as well as how they are trying to combat the drug and opiate epidemic. Each speaker will have 15 minutes to talk and then there will be a question-and-answer session at the end.
Flyers about the event will be going out to all county schools. Everyone from throughout the county is welcome to attend.
“I hope it gives people the information they need,” Lucas said.
The Paulding County Republican Women will have a meeting to finalize the forum on May 1.
