The members attending and the sector they represent are:
Youth: Ainetur Larene, Allie Simino, Amy Flemon, Carson Coats, Cheyenne Elrod, Emily Whitehead, Evan Henry, Isaiah Curtis, Jenna Bradshear, Julia Crawford, Jullette Nagy, Latia Hatchell, Rhiannon Boling, Trace Cohn, and Tre Crume. Parent: David Cohn, Shirley Green, and Sue Haggenmaker. Business: Bob Schuhardt, Carlos Guevara, Carol Mayfield, Dr. Sheila Hellman, Jill Mooney, Maria Gillis, and Phyllis New, and Steve Bracy. Media: Cathy Richardson, Greg Chance, Karin Hill, Michael Steele, and Roy Ockert. School: Amy Reed, Ashly Addison, Becky Simino, Eleny Davis, Erikka Johnson, Jennifer Brown, Kami Barkley, Kathy Pausch, Kim McCray, Linda Campbell, Michael Johnson, Nancy Gribble, Phyllis Curtis, Rev. Dr. Charles Coleman, Sherry Reece, and Woodie Sue Herlein. Youth-Serving Organization: Brittany Scott, Kathy Thompson, and Rheatha Konold. Law Enforcement: Brenda Butler, Larry Kelley, Marty Boyd, and Scott Roper. Religious or Fraternal Organization: Angela Simmons, Fred Steinegger, Jane Steinegger, Jeanne Hatcher, Jeff Watson, Jimmy Hudson, Mike Burroughs, Mike Leatherwood, Nadine Runsick, Rev. Chris Jones, Rev. Patty Soward, Rick Bowen, and Ty Koons. Civic or Volunteer Group: Lisa Parks and Blake Johnson Healthcare Professional: Belinda Stillwell, Dr. J. T. Wilson, Jessica Weems, Kristi Reed, Leslie Hickman-Fowler, Sharon Cole, Ron Cole, and Traci Buxton. State, Local or Tribal Governmental Agency with Expertise in the Field of Substance Abuse: John Shipman, Dorothy Newsom, Harold Copenhaver, Todd Wilcox, and Homer Lenderman. Other Organization Involved in Reducing Substance Abuse: Brandon Thiesse, Camilla Clark, Carl McCain, Dawn Layer, Dee Kernodle, Dennis Calaway, Frank Plucinski, Kim Brown, Lisa Price, Matt Cook, Matt Knight, Nikki West, Portia Williams, Samantha Harrison, Samantha Dunn, Steve McCracken, and Terri Mitchell. Guests: Debbie Flood, Hope Cooper, Kim Blair and Theresa Dement Moss. No Sector: J.R. Blackburn, Jean Strauser and Skip Mooney, Jr.

The meeting was called to order by J.R. Blackburn, President of the Out of the Dark Coalition. After welcoming statements, he then turned the meeting over to Skip Mooney, Jr. Chairman of the Board for Out of the Dark Inc. to update the Coalition.

UPDATES:
Mr. Mooney acknowledged and introduced the three (3) newly appointed board members to the Board of Directors for Out of the Dark Inc. 

• Brenda Butler—Ms. Butler is employed by the Department of Community Corrections and serves as a certified alcohol and drug counselor for the 2nd Judicial Drug Court. Butler has been working in the field of addiction for more than 13 years.

• Phyllis Curtis—Ms. Curtis is a Professional School Counselor and Drug Education Coordinator for the Bay School District. Curtis has been involved with drug prevention education for the past 25 years and has sponsored one of the oldest drug-free school clubs in Arkansas which is now one of the Out of the Dark School Chapters.

• Mike Leatherwood—Mr. Leatherwood is a certified life coach, specializing in the area of substance abuse interventions. Leatherwood has more than 30 years of experience in the field of substance abuse services, having worked in inpatient, outpatient, and halfway house settings.

The Out of the Dark Board is represented by 17 directorship positions representing a cross section of the community which oversees the business end and coordinates with the Out of the Dark Coalition through a “Local Level Up” community model that networks the entire community and its various agencies, schools, and businesses. One goal of the ODC is to assist neighboring communities in establishing their own coalitions that would enable networking throughout the state.

Mr. Mooney also gave a few Federal updates. On January 20th he was a guest speaker, along with the State Drug Director Fran Flener, at a statewide press conference held at the DEA office in Little Rock held by Chris Thyer, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District. Mr. Mooney spoke to the press about how communities can identify local chemical addiction issues and establish local “demand reduction” plans to solve a lot of these issues at the local level. Also, he praised Chris Thyer for the federal indictments that were announced involving several federal and state joint drug sting operations such as:
• “Operation Delta Blue” where 70 people were indicted in West Helena including some in law enforcement for narcotic distribution.
• “Milky Way”- 22 people indicted for distributing crystal ice in Batesville, AR
• “Operation Big 80’s”- 51 indictments for the distribution of pain narcotics such as Hydrocodone, OxyContin, Oxycodone, including a medical clinic in Texas selling prescriptions for $200 each to be filled and distributed in Arkansas. The average age of those indicted was 24 years of age.

Additional comments Mr. Mooney made were:
• Addiction to prescription pain pills is growing at a faster rate and that the past 5 pharmacy break- ins involving the theft of thousands of Hydrocodone support the growing problem in our community.
• We still have a lot of problems getting information out to the public as to “what’s going on”.
• With all the collateral damage of prescription drug addiction in our community, he has already talked to the Drug Task Force Prosecutor about getting more DEA involvement because of the difficulty in state prosecution of those profiteering off the illness, and that the DEA has jurisdiction to investigate all of the pharmacy burglaries.
• As a community we need to support our youth and provide leadership through the Out of the Dark School Chapters we have in all of the public school districts and that we intend to have them in every school building before the end of the year. Also, he spoke of several communities around the state that continue to contact Out of the Dark to start chapters; however, because of his law practice demands and restraints on funding to establish a statewide network will have to wait.

Mr. Mooney concluded his update with a video presentation about the “Leave Your Mark” rally held in October involving over 660 Out of the Dark students that marched down Main Street, presented a skit, and gave speeches in front of the Courthouse about drug abuse and addiction related issues. State Drug Director, Fran Flener; Craighead County Judge, Ed Hill; Chairman of ODC, J.R. Blackburn; Mayor Harold Perrin; Pastor John Miles, Jr.; and Founder of Out of the Dark, Skip Mooney, Jr. gave brief remarks in support of the students. Music was provided by the Nettleton High School Band, Travis Eades, and Micheal Collins and Chris Johnson of Haven Hill.

GUEST SPEAKER:
Our guest speaker was Mike Leatherwood who spoke on a comprehensive approach to prevention and treatment of drug addiction. Intervention is the closest to his heart. He noted, “Families are emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially bankrupt by addiction. Formal intervention can be extremely effective in treating the addict. You must let the addict hit bottom first; to force him or her into recovery. Everyone is forced into recovery by something or someone-- a judge, job, or family. The addict must surrender to get help on “my terms” not the “addict’s terms”. Addiction is an illness. Addicts are not “bad” people but “sick” people.”

Mr. Leatherwood used a diagram of a triangle to explain the roles family members play in dealing with a loved one who is an addict. One role is the “Rescuer” who helps the addict deal with the consequences such as fines, jail, sending money, and etc. Parents want to take the bullet for their child. We need to learn how to help without enabling the addict to continue to use. Next, we may become the “Victim” in this cycle because of being victimized by the addict 100% of the time. The addict lies, cheats, steals and manipulates us until we become the “Persecutor”. Now we are angry and throw the addict out of the house. But then the guilt comes and the “Rescuing” starts over again.

The consequences for the drug addict are recovery, being institutionalized, or death. The family of an addict suffers its consequences as well. The family has to get healthy again to help the addict. Next, we have to allow the addict to have painful consequences. The addict must reach a place of being tired of being “sick and tired”. Helping the addict reach rock bottom is an intervention. We can love them to death by enabling the addict to get sicker and sicker. Finding the right treatment facility that will treat the chemical addiction and possible mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, etc. can help get the addict on the road to recovery.

STANDING COMMITTE REPORTS:
Business/Industry Committee: J.R. Blackburn
The committee has our poster project completed, except for the distribution of the posters. We are in the process of laying out our game plan of attack for distribution of the posters. We are then going to discuss a project around a lock box for home use for prescription drugs.

Medical/Mental Health Committee: Dr. Joe T. Wilson
The Medical/Mental Health Committee continues to work on our two principal goals, recruitment of members to serve on our Speakers Bureau and the development of a warning label for prescription containers of narcotic and other controlled substances. Currently, we have three physicians who have agreed to serve on the Speakers Bureau: Thomas Mulligan, MD (SBMC geriatrician), Shane Speights, D.O. (AHEC Family Practice Faculty) and Don Howard, MD (SBMC Intensive Care Specialist). In discussions with Roger Harmon, PD, who is the only pharmacist serving on the Arkansas State Medical Board; we have learned that we need to seek approval of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association and the Arkansas Medical Society before proceeding to develop the prescription bottle warning label. Kristy Reed, PD, has joined our committee and will assist in these efforts. We are also working with a local advertising firm on the technical details, specifications and pricing associated with these labels.

Civic Services Committee: Blake Johnson
The committee has been in contact with an individual from Anthem Videos. We have called several people about being in the video and everyone is slightly reserved about it. Therefore, we are waiting for people to call us back in order to get someone’s story told. If anyone knows of an individual or family willing to tell their story and be on the BIG screen, please forward their contact information to us. We have also placed a call to the Malco Theater in regard to showing it when completed.

Education Committee: Phyllis Curtis
The Education Committee’s central goal is to establish an active Out of the Dark Chapter in every school building in Craighead County. We have met the first 2 objectives of our action plan (meeting with district superintendents and meeting with building level principals to encourage involvement) according to our timeline. The next step on our action plan is to meet with school chapter sponsors for the purpose of sharing ideas and collaborating efforts in planning drug prevention activities for our students. Our next committee meeting is scheduled for March 1st at 4:00 at the United Way office.

Public Safety Committee: Skip Mooney, Jr.
The committee recently completed the establishment of the City’s permanent prescription disposal drop box and is still looking at advocating the local ordinance to make pseudoephedrine products prescription only. Also, the committee will be announcing the details about the new OD-TV (6) episodes pilot soon that starts shooting in March about how to solve community chemical addiction issues.

Faith Based Committee: Fred & Jane Steinegger
The committee’s objectives are to educate faith-based leaders and network faith organizations through recruitment to help provide particular outreach services and to start Out of the Dark teams in area churches. Another objective is to establish more local treatment availability and transitional opportunities for drug addicts. We have researched “Faith Partners” which is a team approach that focuses on prevention, intervention and support. We would like to have ministers and congregations take a Congregation Community Readiness Survey coordinated by the Ministerial Alliance to determine possible interest and participation. We would like for Drew Brooks of Faith Partners to come to Jonesboro for a site visit. The Oxford House is another point of interest. The Oxford House is a self-run and self-supporting addiction recovery house. A new position set up by the state drug director to help communities with Oxford Houses has now been established. An owner/operator of the Oxford House in Harrison, Scott Swanson, spoke at an Out of the Dark board meeting recently. Fred and Jane Steinegger attended the “Northeast Arkansas Conference: Healthy Lifestyles & Mindsets”. They were impressed with the presenters and networking. Another meeting they attended was “Access to Recovery”. The "Access to Recovery” program has changed since we first attended. At the first meeting they said there was no cap for the help you could receive. At the second meeting, they said there was a$1000.00 cap and length of time also. The purpose of the program was to help remove barriers for recovery. Also the financial future of the program seemed to be in doubt and the program needed some reworking. They were not sure it would be continued after this year.

NEW BUSINESS:
Mr. Blackburn brought up the suggestion of charging a lunch fee for future ODC meetings to cover the expense of lunch. Past lunches have been paid with donations from businesses. The coalition felt that money donated from the businesses could be better used in providing services to the community through coalition activities. He will get recommendations out to coalition members before our next meeting.

CLOSING REMARKS:
Mr. Blackburn announced that we still have some free drug testing kits available from a grant received from Craighead County Community Foundation. There were also free drug information posters provided by the business sector of the ODC.

A special thanks was given to Mid-South Health Systems, Inc. (Matt Knight & Bonnie White, Director) for the meeting facility and to Integrity Bank & Doctors Anatomic Pathology Services for lunch. The meeting was adjourned by Mr. Blackburn at 1:08 pm.

NEXT MEETING:
May 9, 2012 - 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.