Throughout the last couple of months, I have been witness to a heated debate between Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker and the Board of Supervisors regarding the county’s Opioid Settlement funds. Monday, Oct. 27 at their regular month end meeting, the Board announced they would be devoting the future Opioid Settlement Funds to a Law Enforcement Vehicle Fund and the current accumulated money would be used to pay for the county’s ambulance service. This decision on the appropriate usage of funds did not come easily and is the result of much debate. The request for Opioid Settlement funds to return to law enforcement in an effort to help fight the opioid crisis which has taken hold of our nation was spearheaded by Sheriff Walker. Tensions on the subject often ran high during these discussions due to the sensitive nature of the topic at hand, something I and many others know all too well. As someone who has lost a very important person to the opioid epidemic in our country, I found Sheriff Walker’s fight in this matter to be heartfelt and harrowing.
In December of this year it will have been a year since I lost a dear friend who I’ve known since merely seven or eight years of age. A troubled young man of only twenty-two with a bright mind and a strong will. A kid I called my “younger brother” for most of my life, part of my found family. Unfortunately, this cruel world tested my younger brother’s will too harshly and all the trials and tribulations he endured became too much to bear on a sober mind. A young man who had been a straight A student most of his life, who would defend his beliefs with knowledge and debate anyone willing to challenge them, succumbed to his struggles. He was an otherwise upstanding and extremely intelligent person prior to his discovery of opioids.
The loss of this shining light and strong personality in my life, someone who was an extremely important figure in my childhood, someone who helped shape and mold my view of the world, completely changed my view of the opioid crisis. As he had changed my views before and taught me many things about myself and the world around us, he helped to teach me one final lesson, one that is not easily taught or received. The opioid epidemic is stronger than will, it’s more cunning than intelligence, and it’s more tempting than religion. Truly anyone can fall victim to it when the right pressure is applied and the right conditions are met.
With this being said, it is a righteous thing seeing local law enforcement fight for the people they serve on such a topic as this. It would be so easy for an individual who quite often sees the worst in society to give up on those in need, to turn away or to write them off as lowlife addicts or any innumerable vilifying designation. As it is so common in today’s society to dehumanize its victims, it is encouraging and warming to see someone in a station such as Sheriff Walker fighting tooth and nail for the support of these individuals. I only wish that government officials of every station, on every level, felt the same.
Though I am not personally a Carroll County resident, I still greatly appreciate the decision of the Board of Supervisors to do right by their law enforcement officials and to do right by the citizens of the county they serve. I deeply hope that these funds are able to supply the county’s law enforcement with the equipment and means necessary to give a second or third chance to anyone who may be struggling with the same situation as my younger brother. There is no cost greater than a human life and no greater cause to fight for than to save one. As we are all made in the Lord’s image, we are all worthy of the same care and redemption, even those whom society may deem the most lowly among us. For it was the Harlot who cried at Jesus’ feet, and not the Pharisee who invited him to supper.
