Anti-drug rally touts progress

BUCYRUS – At yet another rally organized to focus the attention of Crawford County’s residents on the scourge of drug addiction, a series of speakers made it abundantly clear Monday evening that their attention is already focused on the problem, and has been for some time now.

They also assured a crowd of about 50 people that they would continue doing whatever it takes to win the war against drugs such as heroin, no matter how many more rallies they’re invited to address.

“We can’t make a difference without your help,” Bucyrus police Chief David Koepke told the crowd. “People are the police, police are the people. The only difference is a badge and some training.”

Monday’s rally, held on the steps of the Crawford County Courthouse in Bucyrus, was called a Fed Up Rally, and was organized in concert with International Overdose Awareness Day, which was Monday.

Sarah Carman, a local representative of Ohio CAN (Change Addiction Now), was the principal force behind the event. A similar event was held at the same time in Galion.

Koepke noted how the two most recent mass murders in Bucyrus, in 1994 and then exactly one year ago, were fueled by addictions to cocaine and heroin.

“That’s the world we came to, because of drugs,” he said.

Koepke struck a positive tune, insisting that the city and Crawford County are making progress at beating back drugs, but he acknowledged that multiple challenges remain.

“The back of a police car sometimes might be the only intervention some of these people get. Our county jail has become more of a medical facility,” he said.

Mary Jean Hensley, president of the support group Together We Hurt, Together We Heal, recalled when her organization was formed six years ago “by three scared moms and two pastors who couldn’t sit still.”

“These are not bad people. They’re good people who made bad choices,” she said of her organization’s clients.

Crawford County Common Pleas Judge Sean Leuthold, who has sent many of the county’s convicted drug dealers as well as users to maximum prison terms since assuming the bench early this year, touted his own intervention program as well.

“Some people think I am a little too tough, but there is help available. I will move heaven and earth to help anyone who wants my help,” he said.

Leuthold recalled taking the position of county municipal court judge in 2008 and finding scores of defendants addicted to opioids.

“I was shocked that there were so many people in my courtroom not able to lift their heads. I had no idea this was going on,” he said.

Tony Grotrian, who serves on an opioid task force in Findlay, told the crowd about losing his grandson to a heroin overdose in 2009.

“I was forced to join a club that I didn’t want to join. Someday, you may be forced to join it, too. Please don’t. You’re not welcome,” he said of being a family member of an overdose victim.

Grotrian railed off several statistics to illustrate how heroin and other opioids are affecting Ohio that were sobering, but the crowd applauded when local officials pledged to get the better of drugs.

“Crawford County is worth the fight. We’re coming back,” Koepke said.

“We’re not going to take a single step backward, and I’m not going anywhere,” Leuthold said. “It’s win or nothing.”

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