The group is working to raise abuse awareness and increase prevention.
TRAVERSE CITY -- Prescription drugs are used to treat people's medical conditions, but sometimes the normal use can turn into abuse.
In an effort to educate the public on this dangerous trend, a campaign is underway in several northern Michigan counties.
Since 2000, over 200 people have died from substance abuse in northern Michigan and a majority of those deaths are related to prescription drugs.
"It's a huge problem not just for the young but middle age as well who are dying from this problem," says Munson Behavioral Health Services manager, Patrick Nestor.
This problem has Munson Behavioral Health Services along with the Northern Michigan Substance Abuse Task Force launching the awareness campaign.
"What happened is Northern Michigan Substance Abuse services looked at the 30 counties they covered and identified nine counties that had the highest increase in prescription drug abuse...Vicodin that is one of the leading drugs that's abused, certainly methadone which is a very dangerous drug for people to abuse and not take in accordance with the way it was prescribed," says Nestor.
This research has campaign leaders trying to educate the public through advertisements and online websites.
"Most people don't have problems with prescription drugs, but there is a percentage that will have a problem with prescription drugs and they may initially take the medication for pain and then goes on to develop an addiction," says Nestor.
Before it reaches this level though, Nestor says the campaign is focusing on prevention, especially since the majority of abuse starts closest to home.
"Less than 2% of the people are buying these drugs off the street from a dealer or pusher. Most drugs are coming from family and friends. So what needs to take place is education, people need to understand they need to lock up their medications and they need to make sure they're not sharing the medications," says Nestor.
The campaign is funded by a grant from the Michigan Department of Community Health and will run until August.
For more information on prescription drug abuse you can check out the Partnership for a Drug Free America at: www.theantidrug.com.
The NMSAS website is: www.nmsas.net.
You can also check out Munson Behavioral Health Services at: www.munsonhealthcare.org.
