A town hall meeting in High Point Tuesday night focused on prescription drug use. This comes as the city has been dealing with a major heroin epidemic.
It's making progress. The number of heroin overdoses has dropped by about 50 percent compared to the same time last year. High Point Police chief Marty Sumner says tackling the prescription drug problem will also help address heroin.
“One of the things that the coalition was quick to decide when we looked at all of the cases of overdoses is that there were a lot of folks that started off using prescription drugs and then began using heroin,” says Sumner. “One of our tag lines is imagine a prescription pill and imagine a heroin needle and if you think one is safer than the other you need to think again.”
Sumner says a PSA campaign based on that slogan will begin in the coming months. Last year, a volunteer group called the Guilford Coalition for Medication Education, Detection and Safety (GC M.E.D.S.) was formed to help law enforcement battle the problem. It includes educators, service and treatment providers.
Sumner credits the reduction of heroin use to a crackdown of a major drug ring in the area and strong community partnerships.
*Follow Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad