Del. Keith Hodges (R-Urbanna) brought together members of church communities from across the Middle Peninsula for a conference on the opioid epidemic on Friday, specifically the ways in which churches can aid their communities.

Nearly two dozen churches were represented at the event held in the parish hall of Hermitage Baptist Church in the Middlesex County community of Church View.

“Oftentimes we don’t look at this as being a local issue … but it is,” said Hodges in his opening remarks. Himself a pharmacist, he also laid out the differences between conventional and synthetic opioids, including morphine, hydromorphone and fentanyl, as well as their potency and potential for addiction.

“These were drugs initially used to treat acute pain at the end of life,” he said, “Then there came about this mindset that we need to take care of folks by treating their pain … but we didn’t realize just how addictive they [opioids] are....