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Lane County Confronts Opioid Crisis With Ted Talk Style Event

Tiffany Eckert

Lane county is designated a “high burden” area for overdose, hospitalization and risky prescribing of opioids. Each quarter, there are an average of nine overdose deaths, countywide. Leading experts on opiates and opiate misuse will offer Ted Talk style presentations at the Eugene Public Library tomorrow (Thursday) night.

The event, “Opioids in Lane County: What You Need to Know” is designed to offer up the most up to date information on the opiate crisis.  Speakers will share research on opioid effects on the brain, therapies for dependent patients and alternative treatments for pain.

Who might benefit from this opioid awareness event? Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell works in public health prevention at Lane County. [Lane County’s Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention Coordinator.] She says anyone taking a high dosage of opioids or on multiple prescriptions might want to come talk with treatment providers on site.

“And then also family members of people, maybe husband, wife, child,” Maxwell says, “who’s also maybe on a high dosage of some kind of prescribed opiate or they think they might be using other kinds of illicit drugs on top of their prescriptions.”

At the event, Eugene-based HIV Alliance will be distributing the anti-overdose medication, Naloxone, and providing training on how to use it.  

The opioid awareness event will be from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Eugene Public Library.

Tiffany joined the KLCC News team in 2007. She studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and worked in a variety of media including television, technical writing, photography and daily print news before moving to the Pacific Northwest.
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