Former U.S. Surgeon General speaks at opioid summit in Knoxville

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The opioid epidemic across the country and here in East Tennessee continues to harm people and their families.

An Opioid abatement summit was held Thursday in Knoxville as a way for organizations and people to network and join forces to fight this problem.

The crowd at the inaugural summit consisted of many organizations like Metro Drug Coalition and Chase Away Fentanyl. Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams was there answering questions and sharing his thoughts on what can be done to stop this issue from growing. Parents who lost loved ones to the Opioid and Fentanyl crisis were also there sharing their stories and hoping to find answers as to how they can help others. One parent says it’s all about erasing the stigma around addiction.

“People are dying because they aren’t talking about it. They don’t want to admit that their child has an addiction problem, but they do,” Tina Kennedy said. She lost her child to overdose in 2023. “By the time you admit it, they’re dead so it’s too late. You have to address it, you have to admit it, not only to others but you have to admit it to yourself first. That’s really hard as a parent.”

Adams headlined Thursdays summit speaking on all things overdose epidemic. He said there’s a person dying every five to six minutes in the United States.

“We have tools available but we are not leveraging those to save lives,” Dr. Adams said. “The summit today was to bring together people with lived experience, parents who have lost someone to an overdose along with policy makers and innovators so that we can all come together and treat this crisis with the urgency it deserves.”

Among those parents in attendance were Tina Kennedy and Alan Vickers. Vickers started a foundation in his son’s name after losing him to an overdose. Their goal is to help everyone in the country fight this crisis.

“Our very original goal, and it still is our goal although we are far from there, is to put Narcan in every home in the United States. It’s about a $6.3 billion project,” Vickers said. “What made us come up with that goal was we didn’t have Narcan in our house. My son had been doing good, we let him move back home and he had been doing well for about three months.”

Vickers said his son, Chase, overdosed after consuming a portion of a fentanyl pill.

Former Congressman and Tennessee football standout Heath Shuler is a member of the Reach!! United board of advisors and said this is an issue that needs to be tackled by more than just the grassroots campaigns.

“Start talking to lawmakers and tell them it has to be a higher priority. We have to get this priority, it has to be at the forefront of all the things that are going on,” Shuler said. “We are in the middle of an election year, we need to start talking about it and start changing the policies.”

He added that this is a state of emergency for the country and we need to make our communities safer for everyone. Dr. Adams said during his talk Thursday, with as much negativity there is surrounding the talk of addiction, there are positives like the Chase Away Fentanyl organization that are helping others through this crisis.

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