Miss Tennessee tackles opioid epidemic

The effects of substance abuse and the opioid epidemic have hit close to home for Miss Tennessee 2017 Caty Davis.

Her grandfather, father and half-brother all battled addiction, but Davis said her position as Miss Tennessee gives her a great opportunity to change the conversation surrounding drugs and alcohol.

“My hope is that we change the stigma, or erase the stigma,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to go down the path that my brother or father did – to feel that they can’t get into treatment or can’t get better.”

A record number of Tennesseans are dying from drug overdoses, and in 2016 nearly 73 percent of those deaths were attributed to opioids.