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By Gypsy Crow

ALBANY — Dougherty County drama students, along with local law enforcement agencies, performed a visual re-enactment of the dangers and consequences of opioid abuse on Tuesday at the Albany Civic Center.

The demonstration starred student actors in a party scenario at which someone brought prescription pills that were abused. Chaos erupted when multiple performers collapsed onto the ground because they had “taken” the drugs. The Albany Police Department, the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit and the Dougherty County Police Department arrived to demonstrate to the students who watched from the stands what would happen to them in such a scenario.

The “drug dealers” were taken away. Dougherty County EMS was called to perform life-saving procedures on victims who came in contact with the “drugs.” Dougherty Coroner Michael Fowler arrived on the scene to pronounce two of the actors “dead.” The student actors cried out for their deceased friends who were covered and later placed into body bags.

The performance included evidence collection, several hearses and ended with emotional music playing as a coffin was brought into the venue. After the re-enactment ended, guest speakers came forward to address the students.

Misty Owen delivered a heartfelt testimonial to the audience of how opioid abuse took her own son away from her. He turned to the family’s medicine cabinet to medicate himself during a difficult time.

“My son just wanted something to help him go to sleep,” Owen explained to the students. “He was brilliant, but his mind was always running.”

Owen spoke to the students about the dangers of prescription medication and about how her son was not using them to party but just to cope when he became addicted. She asked the students to remember to ask their doctors if the medications prescribed to them in the future could be addictive and to always ask for an alternative option.

Assistant Dougherty District Attorney Michael Tabarrok educated the students on the laws of drug involvement that many may not have been previously aware of. He explained that if the student even encouraged a friend to purchase an illegal substance, that student would be considered just as guilty as the person actually buying it. Tabarrok also explained that if a person calls for emergency services to save a friend’s life in the case of an overdose, the caller would be granted immunity from prosecution.

Fowler returned to the center of the Civic Center to speak to the audience.

“This is a serious matter in Dougherty County,” the coroner told the students. “It is a serious matter nationwide.”

According to Fowler, there have already been four drug-related deaths in Dougherty County this year, three of which were teenagers. In 2017, he said he handled 17 different drug-related deaths. The ages of victims ranged from teens to adults.

The event was sponsored by Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and the Morehouse School of Medicine. Morehouse received a grant it has distributed to several community partners, including Phoebe, for mental health awareness and substance abuse awareness.

“We are educating the community,” Mary Newcomb, the project coordinator for the Dougherty County Alliance for the Prevention of Opioid Use Disorders with Morehouse School of Medicine, said of the college’s distribution of the grant funds and the purpose of the grant. “We are reaching out to the community through events like this to provide education for prevention so that we can get a handle on the opioid crisis. We’re providing education and prevention information not only to the youths, to parents, to the community, but we’re also providing training to medical providers and treatment providers so they can provide better services for people who are addicted to opiates.”

Morehouse partnered with Albany State University recently for the college’s mental health walk.

The event concluded with the announcement that counselors were available for the attending students if any of them personally struggled with addiction and wanted to get help.

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