Jackson County COMBAT anti-drug sales tax officials will host three town hall meetings this month on abuse of prescription drugs and over the counter drugs.
Issues will be presented, followed by a panel discussion among drug experts, doctors and local elected officials, COMBAT announced.
The use of prescription pain killers has increased dramatically in recent years and so have overdose deaths from them, the federal government reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified prescription drug use as an epidemic and it is called the nation’s fastest growing drug problem.
From 1999 to 2007, the number of drug induced deaths was far above homicides and second only to motor vehicle accidents.
By far, the main cause of unintentional overdose deaths in that period was from prescription narcotics.
Nearly one-third of people age 12 and over who used drugs for the first time in 2009 began by using a prescription drug non-medically, while there has been a marked decline in use of some illegal drugs like cocaine, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported.
The meetings are:
- October 20, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Ivanhoe Community Center at 3700 Woodland Avenue in Kansas City.
- October 23, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Guadalupe Center, 1015 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez in Kansas City.
- October 24, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Medical Center education center at 201 Northwest R. D. Mize Road in Blue Springs.
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