call,â said Dixon, whose son is in jail, battling his ... Dixon, of Huntington, leads a support group for ... CHRIS DO
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‘We all have a role’ West Virginians share with Obama their experiences with opioid addiction
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail photos
President Barack Obama speaks to the audience on Charleston’s East End at Wednesday’s forum on opioid abuse in West Virginia and the rest of the United States. The president flew in from D.C.
Advocates: Fight doesn’t end with addiction forum By Lydia Nuzum and Lori Kersey Staff writers
As Matt Sutton sat in the gymnasium where he’d watched countless Charleston children play after school, he felt hopeful that the man coming to speak there Wednesday could offer solutions to one of the biggest problems plaguing the families he saw every day — drug addiction. “Hopefully, he’ll come here and help us point to some solutions that we can implement after he leaves,” Sutton said. “One of our main focuses here is after-school care for kids, and we see a lot of kids here who have trouble with substance abuse with their parents, and they need a lot of help. We don’t want that cycle to continue.” Sutton is a board member for the East End Family Resource Center — also known as the Roosevelt Center
Gazette-Mail exclusive: Obama talks about the roles of coal’s decline and pharmaceutical companies in opioid epidemic 2A n
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SAM OWENS | Gazette-Mail
David Grubb tells Obama that his daughter, Jessie, has been struggling with a heroin addiction for six years. She’s in her fourth stint of rehab — in Michigan — following an overdose in August. — the site of President Barack Obama’s Charleston visit on Wednesday. The SEE fight, 11A
President, locals push treatment needs By David Gutman Staff writer
As President Barack Obama sat in a small community center gym on Charleston’s East End on Wednesday, Cary Dixon told him what opioid addiction has meant to her family. “We dread the next phone call,” said Dixon, whose son is in jail, battling his addiction. “We neglect our marriages. We neglect other children in our homes, who are thriving, because all our attention is focused on addiction and substance abuse. We rest better at night when our loved ones are incarcerated.” Dixon, of Huntington, leads a support group for parents with children battling addiction. Obama said her story made him think of his own daughters. “They’re wonderful girls, but
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Obama hugs Huntington resident Cary Dixon after Wednesday’s forum at the East End Family Resource Center, in Charleston. Dixon, whose son is in jail battling addiction, was one of the members of the event’s panel on opioid abuse. they’re teenagers. They do some,” Obama paused, “things.” Obama referenced his book,
in which he wrote about his SEE forum, 11A ONLINE
Air base crowd greets president on arrival 12A n Mixed reactions greet Obama at opioid abuse forum in W.Va. 1C n
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