Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

Avery County DART Aims to Rid County of Drug Addiction

Story by Ron Fitzwater

Members of the Avery County DART left to right Stan and Tess McNabb, Rev. Ken Lance, JoeAnn Mihalyi, Lois and Jack Hughes. Photo by Ron Fitzwater There are fewer things more difficult to deal with than to have a family member, especially a child, addicted to drugs except the loss of a child to addiction. Many Americans face this problem everyday and High Country families are no different.

In Avery County though, some of these families are fighting back.

The Avery County Drug Abuse Resolution Team, DART, was founded in 2002, following the deaths of 7 men in during the holiday season of 2001-02 with elements of their deaths connected to either prescription abuse or illegal drug use. One of the men who died was the son of DART chair Jack Hughes and his wife Lois. After their son’s death, the Hughes’ began to investigate the number of individuals who were dying from accidental or undetermined causes and the public’s lack of knowledge and concern about problems with addiction in the county. It is the belief of the Hughes’ and other DART members that many of the deaths ruled accidental or undetermined are related to drugs.

In response to what they discovered, Sue Clouser and Lois Hughes coordinated with Newland Police Chief Danny Phillips and Assistant Chief Mike Estep a countywide public forum on the drug problem in the county, and in April of 2002 the forum was held with an audience of 175 in attendance.

As a result of the forum, members of the Avery County Board of County Commissioners appointed a 40-person committee made up of community members from business, county and state offices, medical, judicial and religious leaders. The committee’s purpose was to look into the seriousness of the drug problem in the county and develop a plan as to how to deal with it. The committee chose the acronym DART.

At the time of the committee’s inception the county had a population of about 15,000 and a budget of about $7,000,000. There was a three-day detox program at Cannon Memorial Hospital and Avery Cares Center and the county had an active D.A.R.E. program, but not much else to address the issues.

DART members came from varying backgrounds and experiences with drug issues. Members Tess and Stan McNabb, joined DART after they witnessed a drug deal occurring on the street in Newland. “One evening we were riding through town and I saw one [drug deal] go down on the corner I told my husband and he circled around so we could be sure and sure enough that was what was happening. That peaked our interest at that point and attended the forum as a result,” Tess said. “What we realized as we listened to the speakers was that what we saw was a reality in the area and we knew we had to get involved,” she added.

JoeAnn Mihalyi came to the High Country with a lot of experience in working with drug related issues in California where methamphetamine was on the rise in the 1980s. “I wanted to become involved because I could see the beginnings of the same problems I saw in California here,” Mihalyi said, adding, “When you shine light on things you tend to get something done.”

DART members work with area law enforcement and the court system to monitor court cases and often provide state agencies with reviews of programs to treat addictions. The group is not in the business of pushing harsh sentences for addicts but rather lobby for more facilities and programs to rehabilitate them.

Although meth, cocaine and other well-known street drugs are a problem, the biggest issues seem to be stemming from abuse of prescription drugs. “Prescription drugs are on the rise with school age children primarily abuses with the treatment drug methadone,” Mihalyi said. “Several of the deaths in Avery County have come from methadone.”

Some of the problems identified with methadone often come from the treatment facilities that prescribe it. According to Mihalyi some clinics dose patients too high. “The problem is that meth clinics are licensed but not regulated. When they should be lowering the doses to wean the addict into sobriety, they are not. We know families that had to go to private physicians to do it because the clinics would not. That is the supposed purpose of the clinic.”

Prescription drugs are not just an issue with young people; Reverend Ken Lance came to DART because of his experience working with adult addicts. “I worked with someone who was addicted to OxyContin prescribed by a local doctor. I witnessed the tear-up of the person’s family and the great loss there. As it turned out there was more than one doctor involved in prescribing the medications to the individual,” Lance said. “I watched this person go through the methadone clinics in Hickory and in Boone. Now that the individual is clean of everything they have commented that in many ways the methadone was worse than the OxyContin, in that they felt more animal type hate in their outlook and had a stronger desire for the methadone than the OxyContin.” Lance said.

DART members see that there are some serious problems with the clinics that need to be addressed. Possible regulations on the clinics would help. Currently the private clinics are operating as for profit businesses and although the DART members stop short of accusing the clinics of prolonging addict’s dependence on methadone for profit, they do feel that the clinics could step them down from addiction more quickly. “If you have ever seen the money go out of those places, they take it out in armored cars. It’s a very lucrative business and it would seem that they do not have a lot of incentive to reduce dependency,” Mihalyi said. All DART members are in agreement that the cure (methadone) is in many ways worse than the addiction it is designed to cure.

Since DART’s founding, some changes have come to pass in the county; the population has increased to 17,000 and the county budget has nearly quadrupled. However, there is no longer a D.A.R.E. program, there is still not a detox or recovery facility available.

There are also positive changes; county commissioners have budgeted $3,000 to the sheriff’s office to begin education programs in elementary schools in 2007-08 and there are plans to grow the program to include middle and high schools.

Most well known of the changes DART has been responsible for has been the fund raising campaign to purchase two drug dogs for the sheriff’s department. The dogs, according to Sheriff Kevin Frye, have increased drug convictions in the county 67 percent.

The Hughes’ feel that the program is well worth the time they have invested in it. They are making changes and helping the problem and along with that, they have made bonds with fellow members that will last because they are fighting a common enemy.

“This group, in the time we have been working together have become very close in mine and Jack’s case with the loss of our son these people have become as close as family. They helped us through this. They cried when we cried, they’ve laughed when we have laughed, and it has developed a friendship that would not have occurred otherwise,” said Louis Hughes.

Community involvement with law enforcement is the key to addressing the drug problem in the county. “I think we have an opportunity with the new sheriff and the way they are working in conjunction with all the townships. I think we can start to see real results. In the past everybody was looking for a headline rather than to do their jobs, now they are looking at the problem not who gets the headline,” said Jack Hughes.

Individuals interested in joining DART or finding out more about the group contact Jack Hughes at 828-898-2630.