April 16, 2025 • 29 mins
Perryn Carroll, the executive director of the Jimmy Hale Mission talks about how they work to Provide second chances for the Homeless in Alabama. Then we are joined by John Clayton ASAC for the Birmingham District office of the DEA to talk about next weekend’s Drug take-back day.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. Good morning,
I'm John Mountson. Every week we try to speak to
somebody from our community who's dealing with a problem. And
we have a problem, but on this Easter weekend, we
also have solutions. And that's why I'm joined by Parent Carroll.
She is the executive director of the Jimmy Hale Mission. Parent.
Welcome to the show. Thank you, and the Jimmy Hale
(00:27):
Mission has a long history here in Birmingham. Can can
you tell me about the history of Jimmy Hale.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yes, Jimmy Hall Mission is in our eighty first year
of service to the central Alabama community. It was actually
started when Jimmy Hale, who was an actual person who
he was actually Birmingham's town drunk kind of the otis,
so to speak, wandered into a church service on a
(00:54):
very cold night and everyone knew him. He was quite boisterous,
and they said, OK, Jimmy, it's really cold outside. You
can come in and stay, but you've got to be quiet.
If you disrupt the service, we're gonna make you leave.
So with that kind of instruction that prompt Jimmy came
in the service. He was quiet for a change, and
(01:17):
he listened and whatever he heard actually stuck with him
except to Christ that night never drank again, and he
set out to open a mission to help men who
had been on the streets and been where he was
to get a hand up.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So we kind of had a Paul on the Road
to Damascus kind of vision.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
There he did, he did in real time, and that's
how Jimmy Hall mission started. Jimmy met the love of
his life, Jesse, and they got married.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Is that where Jesse's place the name of Jesse's Place.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yes, it is. And so eight months after Jimmy and
Jesse started the mission, Jimmy died. And this is in
the nineteen forties, much different time than now. So there
you have miss Jesse. Who is you know, she's like
my mother Teresa. She's Birmingham's Birmingham's mother, Teresa, and she
(02:11):
a widow in the nineteen forties, pregnant with their.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Child, first child, first child.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Wow, she carried on the mission by herself for ten years.
And that to me, if that's not meant to be,
if that's not strength and love and action, I don't
know what is. So that's really where Jimmy Hale mission
gets its roots.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And that story is so powerful, and that's the reason
why I think it rings true even to today, because
there is so much heart in the way the mission
was set up, and that's the reason why I think
it's so well received in Birmingham and how people continue
to give and support the mission. Now, what's the state
of the mission right now in terms of how much
it's grown since its inception in the forties. What is
(02:55):
it like today?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, it's much different. When you know better, you do better.
First of all, we have three campuses. We have our
Downtown Men's Center in Birmingham where we provide services for
up to ninety eight men at a time. We have
our rural Men's Campus in Blunt County in the Hayden community,
where we can provide services for forty five men. Much
(03:19):
different environment, but same program.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
You know. It's a question my daughter asked me a
while back when we were out in the country somewhere,
and she said, do they have homeless people in the country?
I said, I imagine they have homeless people everywhere. You
just don't see them as concentrated as in an urban area,
But they're everywhere.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Exactly exactly. And then our third facility is Jesse's Place
that you just mentioned, and that's our campus for women
and children, also in downtown Birmingham, and we can serve
up to thirty women there and women and children there.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And all of this, sadly is needed, you know, as
much growth as you've had. You need it all and
then some because we still have a problem with homelessness
in Birmingham, don't we We do.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
As a matter of fact, our homeless numbers are rising.
In addition to our program services, we also serve as
the warming station for the Birmingham area. And what we
saw this past winter was alarming to me because we
served over we served seven hundred and eleven unique individuals.
But that number alone is alarming. But what really got
(04:23):
my attention is the number of first time visitors that
we had throughout the winter, and that was at an
all time high. And so anytime that we're seeing more
and more people fall into homelessness, it needs to send
up red flags.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Sure, and these and these places they're not just warm.
I mean it's good, they're warm, but they're also you're
you're feeding, and you're feeding not only their their stomachs
you're feeding their souls and you're trying to do You
don't want permanent residents. You want this to be kind
of a one time or one week or you know
you're there as long as you need to be, but
you want to help men turn their lives around.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, it's come a long way in eighty one years.
And it's not just three hots and a cot. It's
not the soup kitchen. Just get a warm place for
the night, go back out the next day and continue
on the same trajectory. What we have now is a
program to provide the tools needed to escape life on
the streets. So all of our programs start with a
(05:26):
sixteen week Reclaiming Hope program and in that program we
teach physical health. Everyone that comes to us gets medical
and dental care that they need to be physically healthy
mental health. Mental health issues are one of the leading
(05:48):
driving factors of homelessness today everywhere, resources are very scarce
and mental illness is on the rise due to a
variety of factors. Those that need it get mental health
care as well.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
This is you Point Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
My name is John Mountain and speaking with Parent Carroll.
She's the executive director of the Jimmy Hale Mission here
in Birmingham and parent. You mentioned the help that they
need for mental reasons and a lot of the mental
problems that they have are caused by an addiction issue.
Can you talk about the role addiction plays in homelessness?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yes, certainly, and some mental health issues are certainly calls
are precipitated by drug use. But it's a chicken in
the egg kind of thing. Is it a mental health
issue that was not properly addressed and someone is self
medicating because that's what they have access to, or did
(06:46):
they fall into drug use and then that cause some
mental instability and you see both.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
What are the five pillars I hear about these five
pillars of recovery? What is that?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well, that's what we're kind of talking about right now.
That's physical health, mental health, relationship health, because so many
people come from toxic relationships. They're born into unhealthy families.
If you're a child John and you're born into a
family where mother is an addict, father beats the wife,
that's the reality the normal that you grow up in.
(07:24):
That's not a healthy relationship. So we teach relational health
so that people know what a healthy relationship is and
know how to be part of one. And then the
fourth pillar is vocational health. Obviously, it's good to have
a job so that you can pay for housing, you
can pay for food, you can get your basic needs met.
That takes money, which takes a job. But also it's
(07:46):
good for the soul to know at the end of
the day that you accomplish something. So vocational health is
important to a healthy lifestyle as well. And then the
cornerstone of our program is spiritual health, having that relationship
with God, a personal relationship, not someone else's faith, but
your own. And that's really the cornerstone of a healthy life.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And we're talking about this today because this is being
Easter weekend. There's a lot of people with thoughts about
renewal and redemption on their minds. And it's so it's
kind of easy almost to dismiss it. When you're saying,
you're down there, you're getting on I sixty five, you're
at there, you're waiting at the red light, and there's
a guy there with with a you know, a can,
and he's collecting money. And sometimes easy just to assuage
(08:30):
your personal guilt. Here's a dollar and go on about
your business, But that's not really the best way to
handle that situation because number one, he's probably gonna drink
that dollar, he's probably not going to use it to
put food on the table for his family. But number two,
that dollar could have been so much better spent in
a situation like the Jimmy Hale Mission. Talk about how
the mission takes the resources allocated to it in the
(08:53):
way of charitable giving and uses that amplifies it that
you know three and four fold to feed into how
to clothe. How do you do that well.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Like you say, you don't want to just encourage people
to stay in that same circumstance with the same issues
that are keeping them on the street. All of our
programs are completely free, and so we don't want there
ever to be a financial barrier for someone that's standing
on that street corner to actually get help and get
out of that situation. But by investing in a mission
(09:23):
such as Jimmy Hall Mission, what you're doing is you
are you are buying the best care. You're buying counselors
that are certified in alcohol and drug rehab to address
those issues. You're buying mental health care for the people
that need it. You're giving them the tools that they
need to get off that corner.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And it's a good thing not only for them, but
our community as a whole, because people who are desperate,
unfortunately do desperate things, and that contributes to crime, It
contributes to a lot of other things that we don't
want downstream as well. So we we take those guys
and women and we make them to where they're productive
members of society and the problems begin to kind of
(10:06):
deal with themselves.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I get to see that transformation every day, every single day.
Folks come in, whether it's men or women. They're downtrodden.
They're beat down by life, and sometimes they're beat down
by their own bad decisions, no doubt. But then as
they start to learn better tools and they get clean,
they get sober, they get the mental health care that
(10:29):
they need, their whole outlook changes. I can see an imposture.
I can see it in the way they communicate, and
then I get to see the long term effects of
people reuniting with families, going back to be the mothers
and the fathers and the sons that they should be,
and going back to work, giving back to the community.
(10:50):
So many that graduate from our programs give back because
they want to help others along that journey.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And that is a thing because most of these people
didn't come from no where. They have family members that
probably they're estranged from. They probably they might have had
a job in the past that they lost because of
an addiction problem. And you're kind of you're redemptive and
that you bring them back full circle, or at least
that's the plan. To bring them back full circle, to
re establish those those relationships with the family, with the community,
(11:19):
and with their employer. And when they do those things,
they can they can be a whole person. And that's
this thing. They're not different than you and I. It's
just they're kind of in a bad place and we
just need a reset.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There's a natural inclination to think that the person on
the corner, the homeless person, it's someone from the other
side of town, the other neighborhood, the other kind of family,
not my neighborhood, not my kind of family, not the people.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I go to church with.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
But John, we serve people in the wealthiest zip code
in state of Alabama. We have had medical doctors come
through our program because they've fail to opiate addiction. We've
had CPAs, lawyers, bankers, you know, all types of people. Really,
(12:09):
these problems don't discriminate, so don't always think it's somebody else.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And sometimes there can be the hardest people to reach
because there's a lot of pride there and you don't
want to admit that when you are a CPA or
a doctor or a doctor, CPA, whatever it is, you
don't want to admit that you have this problem, and
you have to go, you know, get in line in
between a guy who was who yesterday was the drunk
on the corner, and the guy behind you is yesterday
(12:35):
he was that guy behind bars and you're just like them.
But really that's kind of the mission. That's kind of
the mission we're thinking about on Easter Sunday is we're
all the same in that way, and so sometimes we
all need help.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
We're all God's children. We've all seen and fallen short
in different ways, but there's a path back for everyone.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Paren Let's talk about some of the things that are
on the horizons for Jimmy Hale, because I understand the
mission is always expanding. It's a kind of a it's
a it's a good thing and it's bad it's a
bad thing the need is there. It's a good thing
that the need is being met. Talk about some of
the things the Mission is doing to grow. That's right,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I always say I would love for the Mission to
go out of business. I'd love for there not to
be a need for the Mission, but there always is
going to be a need. We know that. In addition
to our programs, you know, we've been holding the warming
station by setting up cots in our dining hall and
in our chapel, and that's adequate, it's not optimal because
(13:32):
we want to reach that population as well. So we
have in the works a new emergency shelter service center
and I stress service center because there you go. We
don't want just to foster people staying in that situation.
So our new facility in Birmingham will have social services.
You can get an ID so you can get back
(13:53):
to work. You can come in and wash clothes, get
a shower, John, I can't tell you the look on
a lady's face when you tell her she's going to
be able to wash her hair. That can start things
in motion. Yes, we'll have medical care there through some
of our partners who will come on site. There's so
many health issues that we see on the street that
(14:15):
these health conditions are very treatable and can make a
huge difference in how someone feels, like high blood pressure.
Someone suffering from high blood pressure, they don't feel good.
Diabetes it runs rampant. But when you treat the underlying condition,
you can start someone to feeling better, give them the
(14:35):
energy and the ability to address other things and get
back on their feet.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Param We've given so many reasons why people should give
to the mission, but now let's give the how How
do people connect? How do people either serve with the
mission or use your services or give money to help
support your ministry.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Okay, we make it real easy. We have a website
Jimmy Hell Mission dot com and that's j I M
M I E H A L E Mission dot com.
You can go right there on the top tabs you'll
see get help. If you need help, go right there.
You don't have to print anything off, find a stamp,
(15:20):
get it melt in. You can apply right online. So
if you need help, please go to Jimmyheal Mission dot
com or call us two O five three two three
five eight seven eight will help you get started over
the phone.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
There's also a.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Way on our website to sign up to volunteer Get involved.
If you and your family, you and your Sunday school class,
or just you individually want to come down and help
us serve a meal. You don't even have to bring
the food. You can come serve hours. But by showing
up for those who feel like they've been forgotten, you
can change someone's day and start changing their life. So
(15:59):
you can sign up volunteer, Get involved, sign up to volunteer.
If you've got an idea, there's a text box you
can say, Hey, I really want to come down and
do X. We'll get in touch with you and get
it set up. Make sure it's a good experience for
you and your family, or you and your group as well.
If you're not able to volunteer and you don't need help,
(16:19):
but you want to help, you can give right online.
It's secure. You just go right there to the yellow
donate button. It does take money to do this, but
this is an investment in our neighbors. This is an
investment in the least of these, the most vulnerable, and
it's an investment in our community.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And because the mission is a five oh one c three.
It is a tax deductible thing. So if you want
to give a thousand dollars, you can take one thousand
dollars off your twenty twenty five income taxes for next year.
It is a tax deductible thing, so if you want
to give one thousand dollars, you can take a thousand
dollars off your twenty twenty five income tax for next year.
And you know, that's it's great that you're able to
(16:59):
You're able to contribute in a way that actually it
helps the community and it makes you feel good. And
even Uncle Sam is okay with it. That's right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
You'll get much more out I've given to us than
Uncle Sam. And we're financially transparent. You can go right
on our website there and you can see our nine
to ninety our tax return. You can look it's audited
every year by an outside firm. You can see that
it's audited, and we're spending the money wisely and being
good stewards. And we invite people come for a tour,
(17:27):
come see us. We would love to show you what
you're investing in. You know, all of our campuses have
a learning center, so those that we serve can come
in Sometimes it's just learning how to read and write,
because we still have people that can't read and write.
You're not gonna make it in society if you can't
read and write. So we start there short term work certificates,
(17:50):
college credit to get where they need to be to
come back into the community. So come see what we do.
We call it that I had no idea to because
invariably along the way somebody will look at us and go,
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
You did all this great place to stop paring. Carrol,
thank you so much for joining us this Easter morning.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Thank you very much, and a happy Easter to everyone you're.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from the
Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
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(18:43):
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Speaker 1 (18:47):
And welcome back to Viewpoint Alabama. I'm John Mounce and
this is the Alabama Radio Network and we join right
now by John Clayton. He is a special agent with
the DEA. You are in charge of well all of Alabama, right, yes, sir,
so explain exactly what the role of the DEA is
in our assuming. I see TV shows where the DEA
(19:08):
are always going after the bad guys. But there's some
things you do to help us, the regular folks who
aren't necessarily the bad guys.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Absolutely, we do a lot of public service announcements, We
do work in schools. But coming up April twenty sixth Saturday,
we have the National pill take Back and so that's
occurring between ten am and two pm. We have over
forty locations throughout the state of Alabama where you can
bring your unneeded medications and dispose of them at those locations.
(19:37):
We have a tremendous amount of partners in this endeavor.
It's a pretty big deal. Over the whole nation, we
have forty one hundred drop locations, but for the state
of Alabama, we got forty.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
We'll add more every.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Day, but we just couldn't do it without our state
and local partners and law enforcement and also our community
partners that put this event together. Happens twice a year,
April and October, and it's a big deal because all
those unwarned medications if not disposed of. The longer they
sit in your home, the more chance they have of
being taken and used in a way that's not supposed
(20:11):
to be used.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And let me plase double advocate here, why can't I
just throw them in the trash?
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Well, you know, if you throw them in the trash,
there's no guarantee they're actually going to make it to
the dump. You'd be surprised the links people go to
to find unused medications. So the best way to do
it is to bring it to our drop locations again.
Saturday April twenty six, ten am two pm. You can
bring them there, and if you want to find a
location where you can bring your pills, you can go
(20:37):
to take back dea TakeBack dot com and you'll find
a location near you to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Dea TakeBack dot Com. I'm assuming not that anyone has
any clandestine things in mind, but no questions asked. Whatever
they are, you just drop them off.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
That's correct, it's anonymous, it's free. Now, there are some
things that we do not take at take back, and
that is syringes, sharps, elicit drugs. And when I talk
about the list at drugs, what I mean is cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, metamphetamine,
and stuff that's illegal regardless of that's right.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
There is no prescription for a cocaine, that's correct.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Yes, So if you have any of those substances and
you want to get rid of them, call your local
law enforcement.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
That'll be glad to take those off your hands.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
And yeah, probably have some more questions for you, probably
a couple of questions. So let's talk about some of
the other things the DEA is involved with, because this
isn't the only thing you guys do in Alabama. And
there's a lot of things the DA is involved with
in terms of keeping our schools safe and our road
safe and that sort of thing. Can you talk about
some of the other things that the DA does.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Yes, So we are tasked with enforced and the Controlled
Substance Act, and so any illicit drugs that are out there,
being produced, transported, or smuggled across the border, we look
into those investment or do investigations targeting those individuals that
are producing, manufacturing, distributing drugs.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
And typically we are.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Tasked with looking for and investigating the source of what
we call the sources apply and so those people who
are making it, transport in all, and then we look
to the source countries Let's say Mexico for example, where
methamphetamine is manufactured, fentanyl is manufactured from chemicals that are
imported from China. So we look at those type of
(22:22):
individuals that are producing, transporting, and distributing these drugs. And
we do a lot of investigations with our local partners
here in Alabama, our state and locals, and we look
for any individuals that are are again who are involved
in the drug trade, illicit drugs that are harming and
poisoning our communities.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
This is Due Point Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
I'm talking with John Clayton. He is a Special Agent
in charge of the DEA for Alabama. Can you talk
John about the rise of fence and all. Because it's
a drug that we quite frankly hadn't heard about until
the last ten years or so, and now it's a
big deal.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yes, it is a it has risen to a major
epidemic and problem here in the United States, mass amounts
coming across the border from Mexico. And it is a
deadly drug. It's two milligrams are as a potential deadly dose.
That is enough to fill up the tip of a pencil.
So it's a very small amount. It is very dangerous.
(23:21):
And you know, there are medical uses for fentanyl, but
what I'm talking about is the illicit production and transportation
and distribution of fentanyl. And it comes in different forms,
powder form. It also comes in fake pills. They're being
pressed out to make too made to look like legitimate pills.
And so this is a huge problem because you may
(23:43):
think you're taking a legitimate.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Pill, but it is not.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
It is a fake pill that was manufactured in a
lab in Mexico that is out in the middle of nowhere.
It's not a pharmaceutical grade laboratory. This is not well regulated,
it is not regulated at all, and it's very dangerous.
And so we had you know, over one hundred thousand
people die from fentanyl and poisoning overdose drugs. Seventy percent
(24:09):
of the overdoses that happened throughout the United States, seventy
percent of it goes back to the opioids, fentanyl, those
type of drugs, and so huge problem. Good news is
CDC's reporting we've had a twenty one percent reduction nationwide
and overdose deaths, and that is true for Alabama as well.
It's about a twenty one percent reduction overdose deaths, which
(24:30):
is which is good.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
But we have a lot of work still to do.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And with these drugs, sometimes the people who are being
hurt are people not trying to even get high, Like
it's somebody like a police officer who pulled somebody over
who happened to have some autumn he came in contact
with it, and now he's overdosing on this drug, not
even realizing that he was going to becoming in contact
with it.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Absolutely, and that's and that's why it's so dangerous. And
so again, people people may be taking a pill they
think is a legitimate peal, they have no idea where
it came from, they have no idea that it contains fentanyl,
and they're thinking they're taking a pain pill to help
them get through a situation they have, and it kills them.
So my advice is if you only take any kind
(25:10):
of medication if you go to a doctor, he gives
you a prescription, and you get that prescription filled at
a drug store, at a legitimate pharmacy, then you know
it's safe. Otherwise, taking a pill from someone, even if
it's a friend, they don't know what's in that pill,
so you just had to be very, very careful. And
that's a message we try to get out through our
one Pill Can Kill program and just get the word
(25:32):
out like, please do not take any medications that you
do not get from a legitimate pharmacy prescribed by a
legitimate doctor.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
John One of the reasons why are these people, even
the ones who make the illicit drugs, the illegal ones,
why are they putting fentanyl in them?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Fentanyl is cheaper and so they can sell that and
make more money. It is addictive, so you can get
more people addicted to this drug and.
Speaker 6 (25:56):
They will sell more product.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
So that is why fentanyl is such a such a
big problem as well. And then you also have other
other things they're putting in with the fentanyl, like xylazine.
Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer and they put that into fentanyl.
It has the same similar effects as fentanyl, but it's
not an opioid. So the problem there lies is you know,
(26:20):
the narcan won't the loxalone will not work because it's
not an opioid. So noloxalone only works against opioids. So
the xylazine they mix that in, so now it's defeating
basically the naloxalone. And so you know, there there's many
things that can kill you that they put.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
In these substances.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
Again, we don't know what all they're putting in them
at the time, right, so we just had to be
very careful where we're getting our medications.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Do you have any raw number, rough numbers of how
much medication how much of these illegal drugs like fentanyl
come across our state? You know, like you know, I
twenty passes from one side of the state to the other, right,
how much of this over our roads? And we might
not even realize it.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
I could not give you a number. It is a large,
a large amount. I know that at the Southwest border,
coming across there, there are seizures made daily of two
hundred and fifty thousand fake fentanyl pills that are made
it look like oxycodone or some other pill, but they're
I mean mass amounts are being seized and so those
(27:24):
drugs are transiting the Interstates I twenty sixty five at
it ten, so that is being transited through Alabama. So
we are working with all of our state and local
and federal partners to try to stop that as much
as possible.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
And the DEA you also work with legitimate pharmacists and
doctors and that sort of thing because they all they
have to be licensed in order to distribute write prescriptions
and that sort of thing.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
Right, that's correct.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
If you're going to be prescribing a controlled substance, then
you have to work with our Diversion which is another
set of DEA, and they do the regulatory with doctors
farm assist on controlling the distribution of the controlled substances,
such as you know, any prescriptions that are that are
controlled substance.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And so all and all these things always control controlled
substances that hard to say. Controlled substances will pile up
in your cabinets if you don't take all of them.
And that's the reason why we're doing circle back around
to take back Day. So that's is it. This weekend.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
It's April twenty sixth. It's ten am to two pm
at over forty locations throughout Alabama and the website we
can find that those locations. Yes, sir, that's dea TakeBack
dot Com.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And great way to get rid of those medications and
keep it out of the hands of your kids, of
your kids friends, of whoever might be going through your
garbage all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Great way and you know, clean out your cabinets. It's spring.
It's a good time for a spring.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
Clean, any clean time, that's right.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
John Clayton, a special assistant Special director of I think
in the show Breaking Bad, I believe it was Asack
Strader and you you're Asack Clayton. So Asak Clayton. Thank
you so much for joining us this week on Viewpoint Alabama.
Thank you, and that's going to wrap it up for
this Eastern edition of Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
(29:07):
My name is John Mounce. I want to remind everyone
to take some time today out of your regular schedule
to think about your community, the community we all live
in here in Alabama. How to make it better, just
one thing at a time, one person at a time.
If you know someone who needs some help, I encourage
you use today, use the positivity that today brings to
(29:29):
reach out to those people and try and make their
lives just a little bit better, even if for this
day opening. I'm John Mounts and this is Viewpoint Alabama
on the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
This is Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network. Good morning,
I'm John Mountson. Every week we try to speak to
somebody from our community who's dealing with a problem. And
we have a problem, but on this Easter weekend, we
also have solutions. And that's why I'm joined by Parent Carroll.
She is the executive director of the Jimmy Hale Mission. Parent.
Welcome to the show. Thank you, and the Jimmy Hale
(00:27):
Mission has a long history here in Birmingham. Can can
you tell me about the history of Jimmy Hale.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yes, Jimmy Hall Mission is in our eighty first year
of service to the central Alabama community. It was actually
started when Jimmy Hale, who was an actual person who
he was actually Birmingham's town drunk kind of the otis,
so to speak, wandered into a church service on a
(00:54):
very cold night and everyone knew him. He was quite boisterous,
and they said, OK, Jimmy, it's really cold outside. You
can come in and stay, but you've got to be quiet.
If you disrupt the service, we're gonna make you leave.
So with that kind of instruction that prompt Jimmy came
in the service. He was quiet for a change, and
(01:17):
he listened and whatever he heard actually stuck with him
except to Christ that night never drank again, and he
set out to open a mission to help men who
had been on the streets and been where he was
to get a hand up.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So we kind of had a Paul on the Road
to Damascus kind of vision.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
There he did, he did in real time, and that's
how Jimmy Hall mission started. Jimmy met the love of
his life, Jesse, and they got married.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Is that where Jesse's place the name of Jesse's Place.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yes, it is. And so eight months after Jimmy and
Jesse started the mission, Jimmy died. And this is in
the nineteen forties, much different time than now. So there
you have miss Jesse. Who is you know, she's like
my mother Teresa. She's Birmingham's Birmingham's mother, Teresa, and she
(02:11):
a widow in the nineteen forties, pregnant with their.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Child, first child, first child.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Wow, she carried on the mission by herself for ten years.
And that to me, if that's not meant to be,
if that's not strength and love and action, I don't
know what is. So that's really where Jimmy Hale mission
gets its roots.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
And that story is so powerful, and that's the reason
why I think it rings true even to today, because
there is so much heart in the way the mission
was set up, and that's the reason why I think
it's so well received in Birmingham and how people continue
to give and support the mission. Now, what's the state
of the mission right now in terms of how much
it's grown since its inception in the forties. What is
(02:55):
it like today?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, it's much different. When you know better, you do better.
First of all, we have three campuses. We have our
Downtown Men's Center in Birmingham where we provide services for
up to ninety eight men at a time. We have
our rural Men's Campus in Blunt County in the Hayden community,
where we can provide services for forty five men. Much
(03:19):
different environment, but same program.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
You know. It's a question my daughter asked me a
while back when we were out in the country somewhere,
and she said, do they have homeless people in the country?
I said, I imagine they have homeless people everywhere. You
just don't see them as concentrated as in an urban area,
But they're everywhere.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Exactly exactly. And then our third facility is Jesse's Place
that you just mentioned, and that's our campus for women
and children, also in downtown Birmingham, and we can serve
up to thirty women there and women and children there.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And all of this, sadly is needed, you know, as
much growth as you've had. You need it all and
then some because we still have a problem with homelessness
in Birmingham, don't we We do.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
As a matter of fact, our homeless numbers are rising.
In addition to our program services, we also serve as
the warming station for the Birmingham area. And what we
saw this past winter was alarming to me because we
served over we served seven hundred and eleven unique individuals.
But that number alone is alarming. But what really got
(04:23):
my attention is the number of first time visitors that
we had throughout the winter, and that was at an
all time high. And so anytime that we're seeing more
and more people fall into homelessness, it needs to send
up red flags.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Sure, and these and these places they're not just warm.
I mean it's good, they're warm, but they're also you're
you're feeding, and you're feeding not only their their stomachs
you're feeding their souls and you're trying to do You
don't want permanent residents. You want this to be kind
of a one time or one week or you know
you're there as long as you need to be, but
you want to help men turn their lives around.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, it's come a long way in eighty one years.
And it's not just three hots and a cot. It's
not the soup kitchen. Just get a warm place for
the night, go back out the next day and continue
on the same trajectory. What we have now is a
program to provide the tools needed to escape life on
the streets. So all of our programs start with a
(05:26):
sixteen week Reclaiming Hope program and in that program we
teach physical health. Everyone that comes to us gets medical
and dental care that they need to be physically healthy
mental health. Mental health issues are one of the leading
(05:48):
driving factors of homelessness today everywhere, resources are very scarce
and mental illness is on the rise due to a
variety of factors. Those that need it get mental health
care as well.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
This is you Point Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
My name is John Mountain and speaking with Parent Carroll.
She's the executive director of the Jimmy Hale Mission here
in Birmingham and parent. You mentioned the help that they
need for mental reasons and a lot of the mental
problems that they have are caused by an addiction issue.
Can you talk about the role addiction plays in homelessness?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yes, certainly, and some mental health issues are certainly calls
are precipitated by drug use. But it's a chicken in
the egg kind of thing. Is it a mental health
issue that was not properly addressed and someone is self
medicating because that's what they have access to, or did
(06:46):
they fall into drug use and then that cause some
mental instability and you see both.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
What are the five pillars I hear about these five
pillars of recovery? What is that?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well, that's what we're kind of talking about right now.
That's physical health, mental health, relationship health, because so many
people come from toxic relationships. They're born into unhealthy families.
If you're a child John and you're born into a
family where mother is an addict, father beats the wife,
that's the reality the normal that you grow up in.
(07:24):
That's not a healthy relationship. So we teach relational health
so that people know what a healthy relationship is and
know how to be part of one. And then the
fourth pillar is vocational health. Obviously, it's good to have
a job so that you can pay for housing, you
can pay for food, you can get your basic needs met.
That takes money, which takes a job. But also it's
(07:46):
good for the soul to know at the end of
the day that you accomplish something. So vocational health is
important to a healthy lifestyle as well. And then the
cornerstone of our program is spiritual health, having that relationship
with God, a personal relationship, not someone else's faith, but
your own. And that's really the cornerstone of a healthy life.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And we're talking about this today because this is being
Easter weekend. There's a lot of people with thoughts about
renewal and redemption on their minds. And it's so it's
kind of easy almost to dismiss it. When you're saying,
you're down there, you're getting on I sixty five, you're
at there, you're waiting at the red light, and there's
a guy there with with a you know, a can,
and he's collecting money. And sometimes easy just to assuage
(08:30):
your personal guilt. Here's a dollar and go on about
your business, But that's not really the best way to
handle that situation because number one, he's probably gonna drink
that dollar, he's probably not going to use it to
put food on the table for his family. But number two,
that dollar could have been so much better spent in
a situation like the Jimmy Hale Mission. Talk about how
the mission takes the resources allocated to it in the
(08:53):
way of charitable giving and uses that amplifies it that
you know three and four fold to feed into how
to clothe. How do you do that well.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Like you say, you don't want to just encourage people
to stay in that same circumstance with the same issues
that are keeping them on the street. All of our
programs are completely free, and so we don't want there
ever to be a financial barrier for someone that's standing
on that street corner to actually get help and get
out of that situation. But by investing in a mission
(09:23):
such as Jimmy Hall Mission, what you're doing is you
are you are buying the best care. You're buying counselors
that are certified in alcohol and drug rehab to address
those issues. You're buying mental health care for the people
that need it. You're giving them the tools that they
need to get off that corner.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
And it's a good thing not only for them, but
our community as a whole, because people who are desperate,
unfortunately do desperate things, and that contributes to crime, It
contributes to a lot of other things that we don't
want downstream as well. So we we take those guys
and women and we make them to where they're productive
members of society and the problems begin to kind of
(10:06):
deal with themselves.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I get to see that transformation every day, every single day.
Folks come in, whether it's men or women. They're downtrodden.
They're beat down by life, and sometimes they're beat down
by their own bad decisions, no doubt. But then as
they start to learn better tools and they get clean,
they get sober, they get the mental health care that
(10:29):
they need, their whole outlook changes. I can see an imposture.
I can see it in the way they communicate, and
then I get to see the long term effects of
people reuniting with families, going back to be the mothers
and the fathers and the sons that they should be,
and going back to work, giving back to the community.
(10:50):
So many that graduate from our programs give back because
they want to help others along that journey.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And that is a thing because most of these people
didn't come from no where. They have family members that
probably they're estranged from. They probably they might have had
a job in the past that they lost because of
an addiction problem. And you're kind of you're redemptive and
that you bring them back full circle, or at least
that's the plan. To bring them back full circle, to
re establish those those relationships with the family, with the community,
(11:19):
and with their employer. And when they do those things,
they can they can be a whole person. And that's
this thing. They're not different than you and I. It's
just they're kind of in a bad place and we
just need a reset.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There's a natural inclination to think that the person on
the corner, the homeless person, it's someone from the other
side of town, the other neighborhood, the other kind of family,
not my neighborhood, not my kind of family, not the people.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
I go to church with.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
But John, we serve people in the wealthiest zip code
in state of Alabama. We have had medical doctors come
through our program because they've fail to opiate addiction. We've
had CPAs, lawyers, bankers, you know, all types of people. Really,
(12:09):
these problems don't discriminate, so don't always think it's somebody else.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And sometimes there can be the hardest people to reach
because there's a lot of pride there and you don't
want to admit that when you are a CPA or
a doctor or a doctor, CPA, whatever it is, you
don't want to admit that you have this problem, and
you have to go, you know, get in line in
between a guy who was who yesterday was the drunk
on the corner, and the guy behind you is yesterday
(12:35):
he was that guy behind bars and you're just like them.
But really that's kind of the mission. That's kind of
the mission we're thinking about on Easter Sunday is we're
all the same in that way, and so sometimes we
all need help.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
We're all God's children. We've all seen and fallen short
in different ways, but there's a path back for everyone.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Paren Let's talk about some of the things that are
on the horizons for Jimmy Hale, because I understand the
mission is always expanding. It's a kind of a it's
a it's a good thing and it's bad it's a
bad thing the need is there. It's a good thing
that the need is being met. Talk about some of
the things the Mission is doing to grow. That's right,
you know.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I always say I would love for the Mission to
go out of business. I'd love for there not to
be a need for the Mission, but there always is
going to be a need. We know that. In addition
to our programs, you know, we've been holding the warming
station by setting up cots in our dining hall and
in our chapel, and that's adequate, it's not optimal because
(13:32):
we want to reach that population as well. So we
have in the works a new emergency shelter service center
and I stress service center because there you go. We
don't want just to foster people staying in that situation.
So our new facility in Birmingham will have social services.
You can get an ID so you can get back
(13:53):
to work. You can come in and wash clothes, get
a shower, John, I can't tell you the look on
a lady's face when you tell her she's going to
be able to wash her hair. That can start things
in motion. Yes, we'll have medical care there through some
of our partners who will come on site. There's so
many health issues that we see on the street that
(14:15):
these health conditions are very treatable and can make a
huge difference in how someone feels, like high blood pressure.
Someone suffering from high blood pressure, they don't feel good.
Diabetes it runs rampant. But when you treat the underlying condition,
you can start someone to feeling better, give them the
(14:35):
energy and the ability to address other things and get
back on their feet.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Param We've given so many reasons why people should give
to the mission, but now let's give the how How
do people connect? How do people either serve with the
mission or use your services or give money to help
support your ministry.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Okay, we make it real easy. We have a website
Jimmy Hell Mission dot com and that's j I M
M I E H A L E Mission dot com.
You can go right there on the top tabs you'll
see get help. If you need help, go right there.
You don't have to print anything off, find a stamp,
(15:20):
get it melt in. You can apply right online. So
if you need help, please go to Jimmyheal Mission dot
com or call us two O five three two three
five eight seven eight will help you get started over
the phone.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
There's also a.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Way on our website to sign up to volunteer Get involved.
If you and your family, you and your Sunday school class,
or just you individually want to come down and help
us serve a meal. You don't even have to bring
the food. You can come serve hours. But by showing
up for those who feel like they've been forgotten, you
can change someone's day and start changing their life. So
(15:59):
you can sign up volunteer, Get involved, sign up to volunteer.
If you've got an idea, there's a text box you
can say, Hey, I really want to come down and
do X. We'll get in touch with you and get
it set up. Make sure it's a good experience for
you and your family, or you and your group as well.
If you're not able to volunteer and you don't need help,
(16:19):
but you want to help, you can give right online.
It's secure. You just go right there to the yellow
donate button. It does take money to do this, but
this is an investment in our neighbors. This is an
investment in the least of these, the most vulnerable, and
it's an investment in our community.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And because the mission is a five oh one c three.
It is a tax deductible thing. So if you want
to give a thousand dollars, you can take one thousand
dollars off your twenty twenty five income taxes for next year.
It is a tax deductible thing, so if you want
to give one thousand dollars, you can take a thousand
dollars off your twenty twenty five income tax for next year.
And you know, that's it's great that you're able to
(16:59):
You're able to contribute in a way that actually it
helps the community and it makes you feel good. And
even Uncle Sam is okay with it. That's right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
You'll get much more out I've given to us than
Uncle Sam. And we're financially transparent. You can go right
on our website there and you can see our nine
to ninety our tax return. You can look it's audited
every year by an outside firm. You can see that
it's audited, and we're spending the money wisely and being
good stewards. And we invite people come for a tour,
(17:27):
come see us. We would love to show you what
you're investing in. You know, all of our campuses have
a learning center, so those that we serve can come
in Sometimes it's just learning how to read and write,
because we still have people that can't read and write.
You're not gonna make it in society if you can't
read and write. So we start there short term work certificates,
(17:50):
college credit to get where they need to be to
come back into the community. So come see what we do.
We call it that I had no idea to because
invariably along the way somebody will look at us and go,
I had no idea.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
You did all this great place to stop paring. Carrol,
thank you so much for joining us this Easter morning.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Thank you very much, and a happy Easter to everyone you're.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from the
Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
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(18:43):
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Speaker 1 (18:47):
And welcome back to Viewpoint Alabama. I'm John Mounce and
this is the Alabama Radio Network and we join right
now by John Clayton. He is a special agent with
the DEA. You are in charge of well all of Alabama, right, yes, sir,
so explain exactly what the role of the DEA is
in our assuming. I see TV shows where the DEA
(19:08):
are always going after the bad guys. But there's some
things you do to help us, the regular folks who
aren't necessarily the bad guys.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Absolutely, we do a lot of public service announcements, We
do work in schools. But coming up April twenty sixth Saturday,
we have the National pill take Back and so that's
occurring between ten am and two pm. We have over
forty locations throughout the state of Alabama where you can
bring your unneeded medications and dispose of them at those locations.
(19:37):
We have a tremendous amount of partners in this endeavor.
It's a pretty big deal. Over the whole nation, we
have forty one hundred drop locations, but for the state
of Alabama, we got forty.
Speaker 6 (19:49):
We'll add more every.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Day, but we just couldn't do it without our state
and local partners and law enforcement and also our community
partners that put this event together. Happens twice a year,
April and October, and it's a big deal because all
those unwarned medications if not disposed of. The longer they
sit in your home, the more chance they have of
being taken and used in a way that's not supposed
(20:11):
to be used.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And let me plase double advocate here, why can't I
just throw them in the trash?
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Well, you know, if you throw them in the trash,
there's no guarantee they're actually going to make it to
the dump. You'd be surprised the links people go to
to find unused medications. So the best way to do
it is to bring it to our drop locations again.
Saturday April twenty six, ten am two pm. You can
bring them there, and if you want to find a
location where you can bring your pills, you can go
(20:37):
to take back dea TakeBack dot com and you'll find
a location near you to do that.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Dea TakeBack dot Com. I'm assuming not that anyone has
any clandestine things in mind, but no questions asked. Whatever
they are, you just drop them off.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
That's correct, it's anonymous, it's free. Now, there are some
things that we do not take at take back, and
that is syringes, sharps, elicit drugs. And when I talk
about the list at drugs, what I mean is cocaine, heroin, fentanyl, metamphetamine,
and stuff that's illegal regardless of that's right.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
There is no prescription for a cocaine, that's correct.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Yes, So if you have any of those substances and
you want to get rid of them, call your local
law enforcement.
Speaker 6 (21:14):
That'll be glad to take those off your hands.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
And yeah, probably have some more questions for you, probably
a couple of questions. So let's talk about some of
the other things the DEA is involved with, because this
isn't the only thing you guys do in Alabama. And
there's a lot of things the DA is involved with
in terms of keeping our schools safe and our road
safe and that sort of thing. Can you talk about
some of the other things that the DA does.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Yes, So we are tasked with enforced and the Controlled
Substance Act, and so any illicit drugs that are out there,
being produced, transported, or smuggled across the border, we look
into those investment or do investigations targeting those individuals that
are producing, manufacturing, distributing drugs.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
And typically we are.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
Tasked with looking for and investigating the source of what
we call the sources apply and so those people who
are making it, transport in all, and then we look
to the source countries Let's say Mexico for example, where
methamphetamine is manufactured, fentanyl is manufactured from chemicals that are
imported from China. So we look at those type of
(22:22):
individuals that are producing, transporting, and distributing these drugs. And
we do a lot of investigations with our local partners
here in Alabama, our state and locals, and we look
for any individuals that are are again who are involved
in the drug trade, illicit drugs that are harming and
poisoning our communities.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
This is Due Point Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
I'm talking with John Clayton. He is a Special Agent
in charge of the DEA for Alabama. Can you talk
John about the rise of fence and all. Because it's
a drug that we quite frankly hadn't heard about until
the last ten years or so, and now it's a
big deal.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Yes, it is a it has risen to a major
epidemic and problem here in the United States, mass amounts
coming across the border from Mexico. And it is a
deadly drug. It's two milligrams are as a potential deadly dose.
That is enough to fill up the tip of a pencil.
So it's a very small amount. It is very dangerous.
(23:21):
And you know, there are medical uses for fentanyl, but
what I'm talking about is the illicit production and transportation
and distribution of fentanyl. And it comes in different forms,
powder form. It also comes in fake pills. They're being
pressed out to make too made to look like legitimate pills.
And so this is a huge problem because you may
(23:43):
think you're taking a legitimate.
Speaker 6 (23:44):
Pill, but it is not.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
It is a fake pill that was manufactured in a
lab in Mexico that is out in the middle of nowhere.
It's not a pharmaceutical grade laboratory. This is not well regulated,
it is not regulated at all, and it's very dangerous.
And so we had you know, over one hundred thousand
people die from fentanyl and poisoning overdose drugs. Seventy percent
(24:09):
of the overdoses that happened throughout the United States, seventy
percent of it goes back to the opioids, fentanyl, those
type of drugs, and so huge problem. Good news is
CDC's reporting we've had a twenty one percent reduction nationwide
and overdose deaths, and that is true for Alabama as well.
It's about a twenty one percent reduction overdose deaths, which
(24:30):
is which is good.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
But we have a lot of work still to do.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And with these drugs, sometimes the people who are being
hurt are people not trying to even get high, Like
it's somebody like a police officer who pulled somebody over
who happened to have some autumn he came in contact
with it, and now he's overdosing on this drug, not
even realizing that he was going to becoming in contact
with it.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Absolutely, and that's and that's why it's so dangerous. And
so again, people people may be taking a pill they
think is a legitimate peal, they have no idea where
it came from, they have no idea that it contains fentanyl,
and they're thinking they're taking a pain pill to help
them get through a situation they have, and it kills them.
So my advice is if you only take any kind
(25:10):
of medication if you go to a doctor, he gives
you a prescription, and you get that prescription filled at
a drug store, at a legitimate pharmacy, then you know
it's safe. Otherwise, taking a pill from someone, even if
it's a friend, they don't know what's in that pill,
so you just had to be very, very careful. And
that's a message we try to get out through our
one Pill Can Kill program and just get the word
(25:32):
out like, please do not take any medications that you
do not get from a legitimate pharmacy prescribed by a
legitimate doctor.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
John One of the reasons why are these people, even
the ones who make the illicit drugs, the illegal ones,
why are they putting fentanyl in them?
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Fentanyl is cheaper and so they can sell that and
make more money. It is addictive, so you can get
more people addicted to this drug and.
Speaker 6 (25:56):
They will sell more product.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
So that is why fentanyl is such a such a
big problem as well. And then you also have other
other things they're putting in with the fentanyl, like xylazine.
Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer and they put that into fentanyl.
It has the same similar effects as fentanyl, but it's
not an opioid. So the problem there lies is you know,
(26:20):
the narcan won't the loxalone will not work because it's
not an opioid. So noloxalone only works against opioids. So
the xylazine they mix that in, so now it's defeating
basically the naloxalone. And so you know, there there's many
things that can kill you that they put.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
In these substances.
Speaker 5 (26:41):
Again, we don't know what all they're putting in them
at the time, right, so we just had to be
very careful where we're getting our medications.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Do you have any raw number, rough numbers of how
much medication how much of these illegal drugs like fentanyl
come across our state? You know, like you know, I
twenty passes from one side of the state to the other, right,
how much of this over our roads? And we might
not even realize it.
Speaker 5 (27:03):
I could not give you a number. It is a large,
a large amount. I know that at the Southwest border,
coming across there, there are seizures made daily of two
hundred and fifty thousand fake fentanyl pills that are made
it look like oxycodone or some other pill, but they're
I mean mass amounts are being seized and so those
(27:24):
drugs are transiting the Interstates I twenty sixty five at
it ten, so that is being transited through Alabama. So
we are working with all of our state and local
and federal partners to try to stop that as much
as possible.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
And the DEA you also work with legitimate pharmacists and
doctors and that sort of thing because they all they
have to be licensed in order to distribute write prescriptions
and that sort of thing.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
Right, that's correct.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
If you're going to be prescribing a controlled substance, then
you have to work with our Diversion which is another
set of DEA, and they do the regulatory with doctors
farm assist on controlling the distribution of the controlled substances,
such as you know, any prescriptions that are that are
controlled substance.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
And so all and all these things always control controlled
substances that hard to say. Controlled substances will pile up
in your cabinets if you don't take all of them.
And that's the reason why we're doing circle back around
to take back Day. So that's is it. This weekend.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
It's April twenty sixth. It's ten am to two pm
at over forty locations throughout Alabama and the website we
can find that those locations. Yes, sir, that's dea TakeBack
dot Com.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And great way to get rid of those medications and
keep it out of the hands of your kids, of
your kids friends, of whoever might be going through your
garbage all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 6 (28:41):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Great way and you know, clean out your cabinets. It's spring.
It's a good time for a spring.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
Clean, any clean time, that's right.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
John Clayton, a special assistant Special director of I think
in the show Breaking Bad, I believe it was Asack
Strader and you you're Asack Clayton. So Asak Clayton. Thank
you so much for joining us this week on Viewpoint Alabama.
Thank you, and that's going to wrap it up for
this Eastern edition of Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
(29:07):
My name is John Mounce. I want to remind everyone
to take some time today out of your regular schedule
to think about your community, the community we all live
in here in Alabama. How to make it better, just
one thing at a time, one person at a time.
If you know someone who needs some help, I encourage
you use today, use the positivity that today brings to
(29:29):
reach out to those people and try and make their
lives just a little bit better, even if for this
day opening. I'm John Mounts and this is Viewpoint Alabama
on the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
You've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program
from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed on Viewpoint
Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management, or
advertisers of this station.
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