Opioid Crisis: Q&A Aug. 16 at The Peninsula Club

Cornelius Chief of Police Bence Hoyle

The nation’s Opioid Crisis will be front and center an important Newsmakers Breakfast Aug. 16 at The Peninsula Club. Speakers include the chief of police in Cornelius, the medical director of the Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center emergency department and the mother of a victim who is helping fight the epidemic.

It is a national problem with business implications beyond the strain on local hospitals and emergency responders. Economic developers report that the inability to pass a drug test has become a major barrier to filling positions. Two manufacturers in Indiana say that 50 percent or more of their job applicants either fail the drug test or withdraw their application when they discover drug testing is a condition of employment.

And the Altarum Institute, a non-profit health system research and consulting organization, says the cost of the country’s opioid crisis is estimated to have exceeded $1 trillion from 2001 to 2017. Altarum projects it will cost an additional $500 billion by 2020.

Dr. Jason Mutch

The costs of the opioid crisis are borne by individuals in the form of lost wages; the private sector in lost productivity and health care costs; and federal, state and local governments in lost tax revenue and additional spending on health care, social services, education and criminal justice.

Debbie Dalton

The speakers July 16 are Cornelius Chief of Police Bence Hoyle; Dr. Jason Mutch, medical director of the Novant Health Huntersville Medical Center emergency department; and Debbie Dalton, co-founder of the  Hunter Dalton HD Life Foundation. The Daltons lost their son Hunter to an accidental overdose in 2016.

The Presenting Sponsor of Business Today’s Newsmakers Breakfast, an open-forum Q&A, is Cornelius-based Aquesta Financial. The Coffee Sponsors are Carolina Trust Bank, Davidson Wealth Management and Raymer Kepner Funeral Home.

Doors open at 7:15 a.m. for networking. The country breakfast buffet gets under way at 7:30 a.m. The Q&A begins at 8 a.m. and concludes promptly at 9 a.m.

The cost to attend is $12. Reserve a seat at 704-895-1335 with Visa or MasterCard.