Initiative Aims to Provide Best Practice Examples for all Municipalities
September 25, 2018
(RALEIGH) – The North Carolina League of Municipalities has unveiled an Opioid Solutions Toolbox designed to better help member cities and towns address the epidemic of opioid abuse across the state.
The toolbox, which can be found on the NCLM website at nzkp.ngskmc-eis.net/opioidsolutions, includes real-world advice from police chiefs who are on the ground fighting the opioid epidemic and have implemented programs that are making a difference.
NLCM President and Jacksonville Mayor Pro Tem Michael Lazzara, who led the effort to create this resource, said he hopes highlighting best practices will encourage more communities to adopt effective programs, while recognizing that no single idea will work in all communities.
“Our law enforcement leaders tell us we cannot arrest our way out of this problem. We can, though, find better ways to promote prevention, enhance enforcement and improve treatment," Lazzara said.
The toolbox features video segments from police chiefs Bill Hollingsed of Waynesville and Tom Bashore of Nashville, where innovative programs aimed at diversion and treatment have been adopted. It also directs municipal officials to numerous information resources provided by the office of Attorney General Josh Stein, as well as connecting them to other programs and best-practices to address the problem. An episode of the League's acclaimed podcast, Municipal Equation, focusing on the opioid crisis, also appears on the toolbox page.
From 1999 to 2016, more than 12,000 North Carolinians died from opioid-related overdoses, and in 2010, drug poisonings surpassed motor vehicle death rates for the first time since those statistics began being kept in 1968, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2016, nearly five North Carolinians per day died of unintentional drug overdoses.
NCLM anticipates the resource page changing over time to add or adapt the information available to better reflect the latest expert advice on addressing opioid abuse.
About the League
The North Carolina League of Municipalities is a membership association of 540 great hometowns – representing nearly every municipality in the state. The League advocates for its members, from the largest city to the smallest village, on the full range of legislative issues that affect municipalities.
For more than 100 years, the League has promoted – and continues to promote – good government by offering non-partisan advocacy, insurance and other services – as directed by its membership.
