GREENFIELD — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell promised local officials during a visit to Greenfield on Tuesday that she intends to prioritize efforts to curb the opioid crisis in Massachusetts amid cuts and freezing of federal funding.

Campbell joined local politicians, health care professionals and nonprofit leaders at Baystate Franklin Medical Center for a roundtable discussion on the opioid crisis in the region and the strategies used to remedy it.

“Everything in the news right now is all about what’s happening at the federal level, and I don’t want to discount that it is a chaotic time, to say the least,” Campbell said. “The chaos doesn’t help us deal with the issues that we need to grapple with. I’m here in person to remind folks and to iterate [that] not only am I grateful for the work that each and every one of you are doing … I’m also pledging and promising, frankly, that even in the midst of that chaos, we will continue to prioritize everything we need to in this opioid crisis that we’re all grappling with.”

Officials engaged in a roughly two-hour discussion on the state of substance abuse treatment and harm prevention across areas such as Franklin and Berkshire counties and the North Quabbin region.

Baystate Harm Reduction Services Director Dr. William Soares mentioned that the hospital’s receipt of grant funds from the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Addiction Services have allowed Baystate to hire a doctor tasked with providing addiction consultation services.

Soares noted that as an ever-changing illicit drug supply and more complicated withdrawal symptoms make it more challenging for health care professionals to effectively treat substance use disorder — as well as the ailments and injuries it might cause — specialized care is one of the most effective, yet costly, treatment options.

“The thing that really helps to have success is specialty care. Having someone who is trained and devoted as a specialist here offers better treatment for patients, sets them up for better care,” Soares said. “Unfortunately, for many rural and community hospitals, it is very difficult to have in-person specialty care. There are issues with patient volume and reimbursement.”

Tapestry Health’s Harm Reduction Director Liz Whynott noted that a majority of those who use Tapestry’s recovery services have faced an unstable housing situation within the last year.

“With Greenfield being so rural, it means that it’s a tight-knit community, and it also means that some people are afraid of being recognized, afraid of coming to our office. ... In response to that, in addition to our stationary site, we have a mobile outreach van where we can drive and provide services in Greenfield and also Montague,” Whynott said. “We try to bring services to people as much as possible. … About a quarter of the people we see primarily use stimulants, and a lot of people of that population in general have incorporated smoking into their drug abuse, and part of it is a result of the changing drug supply.”

Among the participants were Precinct 5 Greenfield City Councilor Marianne Bullock and Choice Recovery Coaching Supervisor Sarah Ahern, who discussed their proposed ordinance to establish a committee tasked with allocating $1.7 million in national opioid settlement funds.

The ordinance, which will be brought before City Council in May, would create a permanent avenue through which the city can distribute the settlement funds, allowing those who have lived experience with substance use to have a say in how they are spent. Bullock spoke to the ordinance before noting that rural Massachusetts is not “pathologically” predisposed to addiction, but rather, the region lacks some of the resources that are available to more wealthy areas of the state.

“It’s not that we just have a lot of people who like to do drugs out here. … It’s not that poor people are pathological and like to use substances more than somebody else. Those tropes are what we are fighting against,” Bullock said. “What is true here is that we have the conditions that have allowed for people to not be invested in, the way they have in other parts of the state and in other parts of the world. We’re hoping that these funds, through this ordinance, will make a structured process for ongoing public engagement that can really look creatively at how can we invest in families that have been most impacted by this.”

The attorney general noted that drug treatment resources paid for with settlement funds from the state’s 13 lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies such as Purdue Pharma are available to all parts of the state.

In an interview before the event, Campbell mentioned that western Massachusetts, unlike Boston or other eastern cities, is often overlooked during Beacon Hill discussions on the opioid crisis.

“In this state, we tend to focus on the eastern part of the state or Boston, and we forget that we have a western part of the state,” Campbell said. “I’m delighted to not only be in Greenfield but also to lift up rural communities. Western Mass has the same struggles, the same challenges, often with lesser resources and lesser human capital. I’m really grateful for organizations that, frankly, go above and beyond to think outside the box when creating solutions.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.