Western N.C. county hopes its prescription-drug task force will address high rate of overdoses

One hundred people die every day from drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and almost three out of four of those are due to prescription drugs, according to the National Institutes of Health. Prescription drug abuse is an epidemic that began in Appalachia, and as one western North Carolina county deals with the issue,  a local newspaper is putting it on the public agenda.

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Yancey County (Wikipedia map) has "one of the worst rates" of unintentional overdoses of prescription drugs in the U.S., said Yancey Mitchell Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force chair Mechelle Akers. The task force presented information to the Yancey County Commission this week, reports Jonathan Austin of the Yancey County News. In 2008 to 2010, the county had 13 overdose deaths. Akers, who is a pharmacist, said the numbers exceed North Carolina and Yancey's neighboring counties' overall rates.

Seventy percent of those who overdose from prescription drugs get them from family members or friends, Akers said. The "flood of painkillers has swamped law enforcement," Austin reports. There were 102 drug arrests in 2002, and 800 last year. Angel Light Counseling addiction specialist John Williams told Austin: "Addiction to drugs is the largest problem our society faces, and legally prescribed medication constitute a large percentage of this problem. With the economy the way it is, people are more depressed and worried. They seek some kind of relief. They turn to something that alters their consciousness to reduce their worry." (Read more)