Opioid addiction is rampant in Pearl River. But officials are rejecting a proven treatment.

Pearl River County has one of the highest rates of opioid abuse in Mississippi, state statistics show, but political leaders there have blocked a medication-assisted treatment center for addicts, prompting a lawsuit against the county in federal court.

The county discriminated against addiction-disabled residents by arbitrarily enforcing a 1999 ordinance that prohibits operating rehabilitation or other “remedial businesses” for inmates, addicts and alcoholics, the lawsuit says.

The county used the ordinance to block Crossroads while allowing faith-based addiction programs to operate, the lawsuit says.

“On information and belief, neither Pearl River County’s adoption or enforcement of the ordinance was based on any empirical, factual or reliable information,” the lawsuit says, “but instead was based on stereotypes, bias, prejudice and/or unsubstantiated fear.”

Medication-assisted treatment combines therapy with methadone or another drug to blunt an addict’s cravings for heroin and prescription painkillers. MAT significantly reduces the chance of relapse and “is one of the major pillars of the federal response to the opioid epidemic in this country,” according to the FDA.

Pearl River County has one of the worst opioid-abuse problems in the state, a report compiled by four state agencies shows:

▪ The county had 17.6 drug-related crimes per 1,000 people in 2017, the second highest rate in the state.

▪ Pearl River County was among the top five counties for overdose deaths in 2017, joined by Harrison, Hinds, DeSoto and Rankin.

The nearest medication-assisted treatment center in Mississippi is about an hour away in Biloxi, the lawsuit says.

Pearl River County had issued permits for a Crossroads Treatment Center and renovations were 80 percent complete on a leased building when the county halted work in April, the lawsuit says.

Hudson Holliday, vice president Board of Supervisors, was quoted in the Picayune Item saying, “Bringing drug addicts to the community is not the way to clean this place up.”

The lawsuit says Sheriff David Allison also opposed the center, claiming he did not believe in treating a drug addiction with drugs and that the center would create more crime.

Pearl River County has not yet had a chance to respond to the lawsuit.

Crossroads is asking presiding Judge Louis Guirola Jr., to order that the county repeal the 1999 ordinance, restore Crossroads’ right to build the center and find the county in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act for discriminating against addicts.

Crossroads also wants the county to pay actual and punitive damages, plus court costs and attorney’s fees.

This story was originally published July 27, 2018 at 12:00 AM.