Rock Island Today

State Sen. Neil Anderson (R-Andalusia) recently hosted a seminar on the growing opioid crisis for East Moline residents.

Joined by police and fire department officials, and an emergency room doctor, Anderson interacted with approximately 30 attendees at United Township High School.

Running for re-election against Democrat Gregg Johnson in the 36th Senate District in November’s general election, Anderson provided information on 11 new laws that address the opioid problem.

Gregg Johnson

“The only way we are going to fix this issue is as a community and recognizing problems and working on it together,” Anderson said, according to the Dispatch-Argus. “I think this is a good start, but this definitely cannot be the end of this discussion because this is becoming more and more of an issue, not only in our state but in our country.”

Rafael Rivera, deputy director of prevention services for the Illinois Department of Human Services, also attended the seminar and discussed the drug’s impact on the state.

“There is no one cause,” Rivera told the crowd, before discussing the different types of the drug that caused at least 71 non-fatal overdoses in Rock Island County last year. The number of total overdoses across Illinois has doubled over the last three years, he said.

“At this point, it is really driven by your white population as far as both heroin and other opioids, and the black population is starting to come up,” Rivera said.

Opioids have killed approximately 11,000 people in Illinois over the last decade, including more than 1,800 in 2016, Anderson said in a statement.

The 36th Senate District includes parts of Rock Island, Whiteside, Carroll, and Henry counties.