Opioid Summit gets people talking about drug ‘epidemic’

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Today Wilmington Police held an Opioid Summit to talk about the drug problem in Wilmington and across the nation.

“It’s like terror. My friends worry every night, just like a terrorist coming in with a bomb. It’s horrible,” said Wade Dunbar. “Three and a half months ago my daughter allegedly died of an opiate called opana, which I did not know anything about.”

Dunbar’s family has been rocked by drugs twice and that’s just this year.

“I’d asked our pastor to her funeral to mention something to the congregation about drugs and if you knew anybody that was on drugs. Well my son was the one on drugs. Two days later my friends told me,” Dunbar said.

Dunbar’s son is now in rehab. He said having this conversation on such a large scale is important to making a change in our community. That change though, won’t come cheap.

“Our biggest problem is money. We don’t have enough resources. We don’t have enough halfway houses and if people don’t have money they can’t get treatment,” said Danny Leone with The Harbor detox facility. He said without funding addiction becomes a cycle that is hard to break free from.