Lightfoot Takes On Opioid Crisis On Chicago’s West Side

By Daniel Tucker
Lightfoot Takes On Opioid Crisis On Chicago’s West Side
A file photo of oxycodone 5 mg pills prescribed to a recent foot surgery patient on Monday, June 17, 2019, in Zelienople, Pa. On Friday, Aug. 2, 2019, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new initiative to combat the opioids crisis on Chicago's West Side. Keith Srakocic / Associated Press
Lightfoot Takes On Opioid Crisis On Chicago’s West Side
A file photo of oxycodone 5 mg pills prescribed to a recent foot surgery patient on Monday, June 17, 2019, in Zelienople, Pa. On Friday, Aug. 2, 2019, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new initiative to combat the opioids crisis on Chicago's West Side. Keith Srakocic / Associated Press

Lightfoot Takes On Opioid Crisis On Chicago’s West Side

By Daniel Tucker
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Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a new initiative Friday called Keeping Our Communities Safe.

The program launched over the weekend in West Garfield Park and it promises to bring city services, preventative and treatment supports, job training and employment resources to people in need along the Pulaski Corridor.

The West Side has long been a center of the opioid epidemic in the Chicago area, and Keeping Our Communities Safe will provide people with the overdose-reversal drug naloxone as well as with clean needles and educational materials.

Morning Shift checks in with a researcher who has studied the opioid epidemic on Chicago’s West Side to find out the latest on the situation, what type of interventions and programs have been tried there and whether she thinks the mayor’s new program could move the needle.

GUEST: Kathie Kane-Willis, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Chicago Urban League

LEARN MORE: City targets drug abuse to help stop violence in West Garfield Park (Chicago Sun-Times 8/2/19)