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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

"Stop Overdose" Campaign Highlights Heroin, Opioid Abuse in ND

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Tuesday, May 10, 2016   

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Health experts host a community meeting today in Grand Forks to talk about the growing problems of prescription drug and heroin abuse in North Dakota.

The meeting is part of the state Department of Human Services' newly-launched "Stop Overdose" campaign.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of overdose deaths in North Dakota jumped from 20 in 2013 to 43 just a year later.

Behavioral Health Division Director Pamela Sagness says the bulk of medications that are abused come from an often unsuspecting family member or friend.

"We want to look at limiting access to prescription drugs that are unneeded or unused," says Sagness. "In North Dakota, we have 'take-back' programs that are located across the state in law enforcement centers, but also, that work has been expanded to include pharmacies."

Part of today's meeting will detail how families can help reduce drug abuse by safeguarding their medications in the home, or by helping them find local drug take-back sites.

Sagness says another goal is to raise public awareness that treatment and help are available not only for drug users, but also for their families and friends.

"North Dakotans are becoming more and more aware of the impact that heroin and prescription drug abuse has had on our state," Sagness says. "There are effective things that communities can do in order to really play a role in the solution to prescription drug abuse and opioid abuse in their community."

And North Dakota isn't alone. Nationally, the CDC says prescription drug overdose deaths have quadrupled since 1999. In 2014, almost two-thirds of those deaths involved some some type of opioid, including heroin.

More information about drug abuse treatment is online at prevention.nd.gov.


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