“These people are good people who make bad choices,” Price said. “I don’t know why they resorted to these drugs.
“But now, they’re trying to find help, but there’s not much help out there," he said. "They really need rehab. They need to go in and get dried out and get counseling.”
Fed up with the increasing problem, Branch, along with Raychel Powers, Suzy Stroup, and Frank Dillman, have set up a Facebook page called Kokomo Help Team to bring awareness to the lack of mental health and addiction treatment in the community.
“We are quite shocked that we have gotten this many followers in the community in just five days. That right there should tell you how much addiction has touched almost everyone's life,” Branch posted on the Facebook page.
“An addict reached out to us Saturday,” she said.
“He was put in Trinity at St. Vincent for detox. They said they would do a follow-up appointment in two days, but he didn’t want to leave. He was afraid he was going to use again. They said there’s nothing they can do unless he is in withdrawals or if he is suicidal," Branch said.
“So we got him on a bus to Florida to a religious-based team to work on his sobriety and learn how to deal with being sober.”
While both Community Howard Regional Health and St. Vincent Kokomo have drug treatment programs, they have limited space and resources. It's not enough to deal with the rising number of addicts.
“Most addicts don’t have insurance to go through those programs,” said Branch. “We created this page for addicts and their families to come together and share their stories and share their stories of recovery."
The site already has more than 3,000 members in just five days.
“The mayor is beautifying the outside of the city; now he needs to work on beautifying people as well and give them a place to go when they need help,” said Branch.
Branch and members of the Kokomo Help Team are hoping to put an event together or a day of awareness to let people know what resources are available and to allow them to share their stories.
According to the Facebook page, a “Take Back Our Streets” event has been set up for 6 p.m. Oct. 30 on the east side of the Courthouse to address addiction issues.
Howard Superior Court 1 Judge William Menges, who oversees the drug court, is considering implementing an opiate task force comprising representatives from local law enforcement – Kokomo police, Howard County Sheriff Department and Indiana State Police – along with the local school superintendents and professionals in the drug treatment arena.
Menges said the group met privately Sept. 22 in an effort to begin the process of coming up with ideas to address the problem.
Menges said he came up with the idea after a woman who he described as a “frequent flyer” overdosed and died before she had a chance to spend the holiday with her children.
“She was looking forward to getting out of jail and spending the holidays with her kids. On July 3, she overdosed and died,” Menges said.
“After that I went and talked to the coroner and as of July 13, we had 25 overdoses, not counting the people who were taken to Indy or Allen County,” Menges said. “Another thing is he said paramedics were making five to eight overdose calls a day.
“When we went back to preceding years, I found out we had two years with 20 overdose deaths and one year with 21. And now in 2015, we’re up to 25 before the year is half over. We have a huge problem.”
Menges attended a National Association of Drug Courts conference in July where heroin was the main topic.
“An opiate task force is one of the things that’s been implemented across the country,” said Menges. “When I got back, I started putting it together. We had 50 to 60 people in attendance. We divided them up into three groups – criminal justice, education and treatment – and had them come up with suggestions.”
The original task force consisted of officials, school superintendents and CEOs of hospitals.
“We have the suggestions and are in the process of compiling those," he said. "In the next meeting, the groups will meet to discuss the suggestions to see which ones are plausible to implement.
“We have had some good ideas come out of meetings,” Menges continued. “We’re moving as a community. That’s part of what I was trying to do to get community leaders to realize we have problem.”
One of the problems, Menges said, is the Mexican drug cartel is manufacturing fentanyl, which is getting mixed in with heroin.
"That’s what they’re seeing in Chicago. It’s deadly. That could be coming down here.”
The coroner also believes the task force is an excellent idea.
“I’m glad to see the judge get involved. I have a lot of respect for the judge. At least somebody is trying to do something.
“People need to be aware we have problem and we need the public’s help.”