Republican mayoral candidate and city councilman John Crawford outlined his goals for fighting the opioid epidemic in Northeast Indiana if elected mayor.
Following a February 5 crime summit and subsequent meetings with the city’s opioid task force, Crawford says one solution to bring down crime numbers would be more quality addiction treatment facilities.
Local health officials have long lobbied for more treatment options, but the bureaucratic hurdles haven’t been easy to overcome. Crawford says the city can change that.
“The thing that they said city government can do the most to help with this problem is help them out with local funding so they can get help with state and federal,” Crawford said.
But saying “treatment facility” is a lot like saying “a school:” it sounds good on its face, but what kind of treatment are we looking for? According to Crawford, every kind, however there was one method he and the opioid task force expressed mutual interest in: medication assisted treatment.
Crawford compared it to a smoker using a nicotine patch or a vape to quit: it’s not exactly good for you, but could serve as a bridge eventually leading to full cessation. And, he says, offering these options could lead to a decrease in crime.
“You don’t have to steal a TV because the treatment center’s going to give it to you every day," he said. "And when you go in there to get it every day? You’re going to get counseling, you’re going to get help if you want it. It’s harm reduction.”
Getting more treatment facilities isn’t an easy thing, though; a 100-bed facility was proposed at the site of an old Verizon office on Coliseum Boulevard in 2017. It failed, due to a high volume of residential space and schools near the area.
While he noted concerns from neighbors aren’t invalid, Crawford did push back against the idea that a treatment facility would decrease an area’s quality of life.
“They actually have done studies where there’s not an increase in crime around the treatment facilities, but there’s a perception that there is,” he said.
Crawford is running against local businessman Tim Smith in Fort Wayne’s Republican mayoral primary on May 7. The winner of that contest will try to unseat Mayor Tom Henry, who is running for his fourth term as the city’s Democratic mayor.
