Brocato joins over-the-mountain mayors in Freedom from Addiction Coalition

There were 269 drug overdose deaths in Jefferson County in 2017, including 11 in Hoover. The mayors of four over-the-mountain cities have created a new coalition to increase awareness of drug abuse and addiction resources.

“It’s really a very tough situation for our entire country,” Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said of drug addiction.

The Freedom from Addiction Coalition is the creation of Brocato and the mayors of Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook and Homewood. Brocato said the idea came up during a quarterly meeting between the mayors roughly a year ago. The recent statistics from the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office and Hoover Police Department of overdose deaths, as well as a 67 percent rise in drug cases in Hoover from 2016 to 2017, confirm the need for additional action to prevent and treat addiction.

Marijuana was the most common drug found on people arrested in Hoover in 2017, but the city also saw 57 heroin and fentanyl overdoses last year, 11 of which resulted in deaths.

“I think a lot of people look at over the mountain as middle class communities that maybe don’t have those types of problems, but in reality they are very much problems in all four of our cities,” Brocato said.

Brocato said the Coalition is centered on awareness of the signs of addiction and providing resources for people who want help for themselves or a friend or family member to get clean. The organization has connected with the Addiction Prevention Coalition, the Alabama Teen Challenge and Help the Hills in Vestavia, but Brocato said he’d like to see it grow to work with more addiction agencies and perhaps set up a hotline in the future to connect people with the help they need.

“We want to help get the word out about those agencies and just do what we can in our communities,” Brocato said, adding that he doesn’t think there’s such a thing as “too much” action to address the rising number of drug addiction and overdose cases that Hoover faces.

“We don’t think we can be too vocal,” he said.

The Coalition held its first event, a Community Awareness Breakfast, on March 13. The event included local resources for treating and preventing addiction, as well as speakers Mike and Deborah Bailey, who lost their 20-year-old daughter Ashlynn to an overdose in 2016. 

This first Coalition event was met with a standing room-only crowd, and the city of Mountain Brook intends to host a similar breakfast on June 12. Brocato said Hoover will also host an event in the future, though that date has not been selected.

Curry said he wants to combine the Coalition’s awareness efforts with more resources and city protocols to help addicts who reach out for assistance in overcomingtheir addiction.

Learn more about local efforts to prevent opioid abuse at addictionpreventioncoalition.org.