Putnam Valley residents learned about the FDA's new guidelines to tackle the opioid crisis during a forum Monday at the VFW hall.

The FDA plans to expand medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction. Putnam County District Attorney Bob Tendy says he supports this plan if it can make an impact on the amount of lives lost.

"Anything they can use to save lives, the No. 1 goal is to save lives. Everything else comes after that. So if there’s evidence that it works, and it continues to work, than I'm all for it," Tendy said.

The forum was hosted by Drug Crisis in Our Backyard, a Carmel-based nonprofit organization started by two parents who lost their sons to drug overdoses. It aimed to promote awareness of the drug epidemic hitting the country and local communities.

Carol Christiansen, co-founder of the nonprofit, lost her son, Eric, to an opioid overdose and says she thinks treating addiction with more drugs is not the answer.

"You still have methadone clinics and people who need methadone to function. So I think to have a functioning person, you need to be in recovery and not have any addiction, pills or medication in your body," she told News 12.

In addition to offering community forums, the nonprofit provides school presentations around the county, stage interventions and deploy recovery coaches.