SIKESTON — A town meeting scheduled for Thursday evening will address the growing problem of prescription drug abuse.
“We’re going to discuss why it is not only a national problem but why it is a problem here,” said Jane Pfefferkorn, executive director at Mission Missouri, lead agency for the Southeast Missouri Drug Free Communities Coalition.
The meeting, scheduled from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Clinton building and open to the public, is being sponsored by the coalition, according to Pfefferkorn. The coalition, which includes Scott, Mississippi and New Madrid counties, is in the middle of a five-year grant program through the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
The coalition’s mission is to promote healthy, drug-free development of youth, according to Pfefferkorn.
“We’re trying to find ways to bring education and awareness to all segments of the population in order to change the way we think about things like underage drinking and drug abuse,” she said. “I have visited with law enforcement, schools, parents and health representatives and, across the board, people want education and solutions to the prescription drug abuse problem.”
The main speaker at the meeting will be Dr. Richard Logan. As a pharmacist in Charleston that is also a law enforcement officer and member of the SEMO Drug Task Force, Logan has personal experience with this issue from several angles.
“That’s where my two career paths cross,” he said. “It’s something that cops and pharmacists deal with every single day.”
Earlier this year, Logan’s experience was also called upon during an educational program for law enforcement officers.
“A lot of the information is going to be the same. The police officer training was geared toward law enforcement — what you can arrest for, the drugs you see, what the Missouri laws say you can and can not do in an investigation,” he said. “Investigating prescription drug abuse is different than illegal drugs, what are commonly called ‘street drugs.’”
“Now he has prepared a presentation that is geared toward the general public, in particular teachers and parents,” Pfefferkorn said.
Logan said a lot of the material to be covered Thursday will be informational and will address the scope of the problem, especially in relation to kids.
“I don’t know of a school system around here that doesn’t have this problem or that hasn’t faced this problem in the past,” Logan said. “It’s just something they need to be aware of.”
Recent statistics indicate that among new users of recreational drugs, “prescription drugs are beating out marijuana now,” Logan said. Prescription drugs, he said, “are actually more powerful than the street drugs and more dangerous.”
Having worked at Mission Missouri with individuals who have abused or even overdosed on prescription drugs, “we know the stories,” Pfefferkorn said.
And not all of these stories involve children getting into their parent’s medication.
Pfefferkorn said she was amazed to hear of older individuals on fixed incomes selling their prescription medicine to street dealers to bring in additional income. “The whole little system was surprising to me,” she said.
“One of the things we will do before we leave is discuss next steps,” Pfefferkorn said. “How do we make this more than education and awareness?”
Possible solutions will also be explored. “It could be something as simple as parents monitoring their own medicine cabinets,” Pfefferkorn said.
Why prescription drug abuse instead of alcohol?
SIKESTON — April is Alcohol Awareness Month. So why a town hall meeting on prescription drug abuse instead of alcohol abuse when the Surgeon General is issuing a call to action to reduce underage drinking?
Two reasons.
“We did that last year,” said Jane Pfefferkorn, executive director at Mission Missouri, lead agency for the Southeast Missouri Drug Free Communities Coalition. Secondly, “Our town hall meeting this year is going to be about the prescription drug abuse because that is what the community is ready to deal with.”
Last year the coalition did “Parents Who Host Lose the Most” campaign in an effort to curb underage drinking.
“It kind of split the community,” Pfefferkorn said. “We found the community was not ready to address things like underage drinking. However, in assessing community readiness this year we have found many segments of the community are ready to address the prescription drug abuse problem.”
