19 August 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – On Friday, federal and local officers in Wichita talked about the success they’ve seen with Operation Triple Beam to fight crime, violent crime and to get drugs off the streets.
Some point out that with the Fentanyl crisis continuing, more can be done. And it can start at home.
“And you hear about the drugs laced with fentanyl. Most of the people we meet, fentanyl has been their drug of choice,” said Sandy Elliott, RN, MN, administrator at Word of Life counseling center in Wichita. “Some people are dragged in kicking and screaming.”
Elliott says their center can have up to 85% success at getting addicts to live productive lives. She also says drugs and addiction can lead people down a path they would have never imagined.
“Family can help by not enabling their addicts by, when you give them fifty dollars to go buy a pair of tennis shoes for their kid go to school, and it ends up in cocaine or fentanyl or whatever, you’re enabling,” said Elliott. “And it’s very hard for a grandparent or brother or sister or whatever to sit back and say no you can’t have. No I’m not going to help you in that way.”
Elliott says she has seen fentanyl and other drugs turn people.
“Because addiction is a progressive disease and so the longer it progresses, that’s a guarantee,” said Elliott. “Be honest. Be loving but be honest with your addict. Because they’re just, it’s the person that you love, they just have this addiction that’s messing them up.”
Elliott says crime and drugs often go together because someone with an addiction can do things they would not normally do. But she adds that cutting back on drugs and in many cases crime, the work has to start at home.
“Just pick up the phone,” said Elliott. “You have to recognize your loved one needs help. We have people here who would never commit crimes except they need the money for their addiction. And then those people get out of their addiction and they are horrified at the things they did.”
Elliott says if you can, call Word of Life or someone else for treatment.
“The important thing is you make a call and get started,” said Elliott.