The Missouri Legislature’s Task Force on Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment is holding monthly meetings to brainstorm ways to fight drug abuse. It is continuing its work from last year to help Missourians battling addiction.

Dr. Angeline Stanislaus, with the Missouri Department of Mental Health, led a presentation about how substance use affects a person’s brain. She told lawmakers that repeated use of a substance could cause withdrawal, craving, and loss of control.

“In order to get a certain buzz level of mental state that you’re looking for, a buzz or a euphoric state you’re looking for, you may initially take even one glass of wine may have done it, or two glasses of wine might have done it, but over a period of time, if you use it on a daily basis or several times a week, the two glasses of wine is not giving you the buzz,” she said. “It’s going to be three. It may be four, it may take five.”

Stanislaus said that this same pattern of use appears with someone using opioids, alcohol, tobacco, and hard drugs.

She explained that abuse and neglect play a big part in substance abuse.

“The most common form of abuse is neglected children,” she said. “They just are born, and they don’t get the touch because touch is so important. The nourishing nurturing nature of an adult to a child is so important for the child when the child is born. They are not touched; they are not given the right amount of stimulation.”

She said that modern medicine has learned that a person’s body is still altered, even coming out of a rehab or treatment center for substance use, which is why she points to medication-assisted treatment as a way to address opioid use disorder.

“It has to be a very small gradual process and the journey’s very different for different people,” Dr. Stanislaus said. “If half a milligram of buprenorphine is what they need or a milligram of buprenorphine is what they need in order to not return to the substance say ten years later, I think it’s a win.”

The FDA identifies medication-assisted treatment as a mixture of using medicines with counseling and behavioral therapy to treat opioid use disorders. Because of the chronic nature of using opioids, medical providers periodically reevaluate if the treatment is working. Some patients may continue treatment for the rest of their lives.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – One non-profit organization is sending out thousands of kits with emergency contraception to Missourians across the state in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Missouri was the first state to ban abortion following the 2022 decision. Since then, the Missouri Family Health Council says they’ve been trying to get the word out that emergency contraception is legal and they are combating this misinformation by offering kits to anyone who needs them.

“Emergency contraception will not interrupt an existing pregnancy; it is a form of birth control,” Missouri Family Health Council service delivery director Ashely Kuykendall said. 

Inside a kit are two doses of emergency contraception, safer sex supplies, sexual health education, and connections to health care providers.

“If somebody were to go and purchase emergency contraception over the counter, if they were to get two doses like we have in our kits, it would cost them probably $100,” Kuykendall said. 

Kuykendall said the project is funded through the Office of Popluation Affairs Title X program and the Right Time Initiative through the Missouri Foundation for Health. 

Within the past year, the group has distributed more than 25,000 kits for free through mail or at one of the council’s 80 public partners.

“I think in the current state, in the current policy environment, it’s even more important to ensure that regardless of zip code or income level or insurance status that people have access to preventive health resources, and the bottom line is those can be really hard to access,” Kuykendall said. 

This all comes at a time when voters could decide later this year to overturn the state’s abortion ban. Last month, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom dropped over more than 380,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office in hopes of putting abortion rights on the ballot later this year. 

“What I would ask everyone to understand is to read the language for themselves about what’s being put forward because it is very extreme and requires taxpayer funding for abortion up until birth and I don’t think any Missourian agrees with that,” Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, said. 

Coleman, who is running for secretary of state, was behind the heartbeat bill to ban abortion in Missouri. She said in an interview that she believes there is fear mongering going on to trick voters. 

“It is currently legal in the state of Missouri to receive treatment for infertility via IVF [in vitro fertilization],” Coleman said. “It is currently legal in the state of Missouri to receive contraception; it is currently legal in Missouri to receive the morning after pill.”

No matter what the decision is later this year, the family health council does not expect a drop in demand. 

“Regardless of what happens with abortion laws, people will need emergency contraception because we know it is a safe and effective way to reduce the risk of pregnancy and so we want to keep doing all we can to make sure it remains accessible and affordable to people who need it,” Kuykendall said. 

For more information on the kits or to find the location of a partner, visit the Missouri Family Health Council’s website. 

As for the abortion question, the secretary of state’s office should announce next month if advocates gathered the 172,000 signatures needed to put the amendment on the ballot this November. 

ST. LOUIS – Chef Rob Connoley is a James Beard Awards finalist. His restaurant, Bulrush in Midtown, has been rated as the number one dining establishment in St. Louis. But now, fans are disappointed to read that he plans on leaving Missouri over what he considers anti-LGBTQ+ state politics.

Bulrush gained notoriety for creations inspired by traditional Ozark cuisine. Connoley had even been invited by the Missouri Department of Tourism to London to promote Missouri dining. 

“That was a really great event,” he said.

That was also when Connoley began thinking about moving his business out of Missouri. He believes Missouri lawmakers have targeted the LGBTQ+ community.

“I’ve really struggled with how a business operates in a state that is leaning away from being conservative to being radical,” he said.

Connoley considers efforts by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to gain medical records related to transgender care alarming.

“Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation politics is now affecting our economy as a state,” Robert Fischer, communications director for PROMO, an agency advocating for the LGBTQ+ community, said.

He said residents, medical care providers, and business owners have left the state over efforts to pass laws considered harmful to the LGBTQ+ community.

Fischer could not quantify the economic impact that’s been felt in Missouri but added that research indicates states with greater LGBTQ+ representation have seen greater economic growth. 

Connoley said he loved his time in St. Louis, and understands if anyone feels he’s running away from a problem. He insists he’s been advocating for years and feels moving away could help create change.

“I thought, let’s go out on top,” Connoley said. “Let’s make a statement and hope that the state can rewrite its course.”