Jamie Murray is Duplin County’s Opioid Response Coordinator. Part of her job entails speaking to groups throughout the county and providing them with free Narcan kits. Narcan — a medication used to treat opioid overdose — is available, free of charge, from the Duplin County Health Department, located at 340 Seminary Street.
KENANSVILLE — Since 2022, Duplin County has received almost $1.4 million to help fight opioid abuse. Another $3.2 million is on the way, spread out in annual payments (of differing amounts) through 2038.
The money comes not from tax dollars, but from the settlement of federal lawsuits — spearheaded by North Carolina’s then-Attorney General, now-Governor Josh Stein — to hold manufacturers and distributors of opioids accountable for the part they played in the opioid crisis in the U.S. According to CORE:NC (Community Opioid Resources Engine for North Carolina), North Carolina’s share of the $56 billion federal settlement comes to $1.5 billion, with Duplin County slated to receive a total of just over $4.6 million.
Per the terms of the settlement agreement, the money can be used for any of 12 approved strategies, and in order to decide which of these strategies to implement, the County’s Opioid Response Coordinator, Jamie Murray, held three Town Hall meetings in 2023, at Snow Hill Free Will Baptist Church (outside Mount Olive), Sharon Baptist Church (in Chinquapin), and the Mad Boar Restaurant (in Wallace). At each meeting, Murray gave community members a list of the 12 strategies and asked them to select those they believed to be most important.
From the community’s responses, four initial strategies were chosen for implementation. These were endorsed by Murray’s advisory group and then approved by the county commissioners. In time, it is expected the county will adopt additional strategies.
The four strategies the county is currently implementing are: Collaborative Strategic Planning, which simply means networking within Duplin County (the Town Hall meetings themselves fall under this strategy); Early Intervention, which is being accomplished by teaching the Too Good For Drugs program in county schools; Naloxone (better known by the brand name “Narcan”) Distribution and Training, for the emergency treatment of opioid overdose; and Addiction Treatment for Incarcerated Persons, which entails providing the medication Suboxone to incarcerated persons who are being treated for opioid addiction.
The Too Good For Drugs program was developed by the nationally-recognized C. E. Mendez Foundation, which specializes in prevention education programs; it consists of a set of curricula designed to mitigate risk factors and to promote protective factors with regard to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. Each school year, it’s being taught in every school in Duplin County for one nine-week period, in the first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth grades by a team that consists largely of former educators: DeAnn Sholar (coordinator), Melba Harrell, Linda Lee, Karen Albertson, and Richard Goldsby.
Murray notes that the program begins at a level comfortable for young children and progresses to information pertinent to older students. Character development is an essential component. “How you can set a goal, and who can help you set a goal,” Murray says, listing some of the topics covered. “How to handle conflict. How to handle disappointment. And then it goes into peer pressure and how to say no to peer pressure. And then it goes a little bit further…you get to talking about alcohol, then you get to talking about cigarettes and vaping, and then you get into the other drugs like fentanyl, heroin, all of those kind of things.”
The program complies with standards set by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
“We’ve had really good feedback on this from the teachers,” Murray says. “They are really glad that we’re doing it.”
During this school year, the Too Good For Drugs program will reach 3,788 students, meeting one of Murray’s goals, which is to stretch each dollar as far as possible. “We’re trying to reach as many people as we possibly can with this funding,” she explains.
“The thing that we think about whenever we’re trying to decide about how the money is being spent, we all want to spend it in the way that it will be best utilized for the county, and for something that is sustainable, something that we can keep up,” Murray continues. Too Good For Drugs meets that sustainability requirement, as the program will to be taught in the county schools every year.
Murray points out that opioid issues aren’t limited to those who abuse drugs. “It could be anybody that takes prescription [opioid] medication,” she says, citing examples like Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. “Maybe under the influence of their medication, not realizing that they had already taken it, they take it again and then they overdose.”
While the Too Good For Drugs program provides education for students, Murray educates the broader community through the Naloxone (Narcan) Distribution strategy. Narcan is a nasal spray used to treat opioid overdoses. Importantly, Murray stresses, if it is administered to someone who has not taken opioids — or if a child accidentally takes it — it causes no harm.
She has spoken to many groups throughout the county (veterans, seniors, churches, etc.), giving them information about opioids and providing them with free Narcan kits, and she’s happy to address any group that is interested. “The more we can get out there, the more lives we’re saving,” she says.
Narcan is available, free of charge, at the Duplin County Health Department, for anyone who wants to obtain it (if, for example, someone feels the need to be prepared for the possible overdose of a friend or family member). Also, local organizations (such as EMS and the Sheriff’s Department) are now being supplied with Narcan that is purchased with settlement money.
Murray’s upcoming plans include scheduling more community meetings, possibly this spring or summer. “The community took their time to come out and to give us this information…what they felt we needed,” she says. “Now, I feel like it’s our responsibility to go back to the community and let them know what we actually have done and what their input led us to.”
Anyone with questions about the opioid program, or who wishes to have Murray speak to their group, is encouraged to contact her at 910-372-9148 or jamie.murray@duplincountync.com. The Duplin County Health Department is located at 340 Seminary St.
