ANSON COUNTY — “You can change, you don’t have to live this way,” says William Short, and it is the main point he hopes sticks with people after they attend a Community Awareness for Addiction and Recovery meeting. Short says his meetings are not exclusively for addicts, but instead are open to loved ones, family, friends, and concerned community members eager to see a change in the county’s drug and violent crime numbers.
Working towards achieving this endeavor, Short holds meetings on the fourth Tuesday of each month in the Community Room at Atrium Anson at 7 p.m., where everyone is welcome.
July’s meeting was a very special one for Short as he invited members from the ACSO, the WPD, and even District Attorney Jamie Adams to come and speak about substance abuse statistics and their experiences with being at the crossroads of drug addiction and crime.
The WPD shared that between May 7 and June 7 they had seven drug charges issued.
The ACSO released the following information regarding its drug charges: “Eleven for marijuana possession, 16 for meth, 13 for fentanyl, 10 for opioids, 5 for cocaine, 5 for drug paraphernalia, and 4 for maintaining a dwelling to make or sell drugs.”
Short said, “We need to come together and get the kids involved. We cannot just sit back when we need to take action.” He added, “Our community is more powerful than any politician. We have the power to come together and make positive things happen here in our community.”
Sgt. Willoughby with the ACSO shared he was aware of 29 overdoses since January in the county, and 32 drug-related calls. He explained that people do not want to become involved in drug cases.
Willoughby said, “We find they do not want their name associated or connected to the case and become a target. We use informants to combat drugs from the inside out, and in a lot of cases we don’t have the evidence to prove what we know is going on.” He added, “If you see something say something, let us know if you have concerns about drug activity. Our job is to find the drugs and get them off the street by any legal means necessary.”
Agreeing, District Attorney Adams said, “We see a lot of repeat offenders, though that is not unique to Anson County, that is everywhere. There are people in our community who do not want to get it involved, but we have to get involved.”
Running for Wadesboro town council, being at the meeting was so important to Candidate Donald Sellers that as a coach, he missed practice with his girls’ softball team to attend.
He said, “Drugs in this community are terrible. You ask for help and you don’t get it.”
Sellers went on to describe his experiences as a volunteer firefighter, showing up to drunk driving car wrecks and having to put the fires out. He said, “This is real, it is not a joke, and it is not going to go away on its own. It’s going to take us coming together as a community and really looking for viable solutions.”
Some suggestions in the meeting were to set up a drug awareness and information kiosk inside of the schools, similar to ones set up inside Richmond County Schools, which is funded through money available from the Opioid Settlement Fund. Others suggested following in the footsteps of Daryl Oliver with Safer Communities Ministry and going into the jails and providing guidance, education, and ministry. Once again, all who attended agreed some form of activity or entertainment needs to be available for the youth of Anson County.
Several community leaders, local candidates for elected office, commissioners, and even NC House Representative District 55 candidate Clancy Baucom attended Tuesday’s meeting for change.
