KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The Kalamazoo County board has agreed to opt-in to a couple of new opioid settlement deals that could eventually bring an additional $1.7 million to the community for drug treatment programs.
Local activist Gwendolyn Hooker says she would like to see some of that money spent immediately to set up an emergency alert system to warn drug users when a bad batch of drugs hits the streets.
She says often when deaths occur, they happen in clusters.
“That would save lives. Last week we lost three people. How many more we don’t really know.”
She says seven suffered overdoses within a 24 hour period in April of 2023.
Hooker says there are alert systems in place already that could be adapted for this.
“If we had that alert system we may have been able to save some lives, and we have the money, we have the infrastructure, I’m not really sure why that hasn’t been activated or implemented.”
A special opioid task force has been established to decide how the money from the national settlements should be spent, and a drug alarm system is on their list of projects.
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