Carroll County will hold a town hall meeting on the heroin and opioid drug epidemic on Wednesday, July 27, 2016. Local, state and federal officials will unite to inform citizens about the dangers of heroin and prescription pills.

From the Carroll County Times,

Dubbed From Pills to Street Drugs, the Heroin Epidemic, the meeting is sponsored by the Carroll County Health Department and will feature a keynote presentation by Karl Colder, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge for the Baltimore region. Colder will also participate in a panel discussion, open to public questions, with Maryland Deputy Secretary for Public Health Services Dr. Howard Haft, Carroll County State’s Attorney Brian DeLeonardo, Sheriff Jim DeWees and Sharon Sanders, vice president of clinical integration at Carroll Hospital, among others.

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“This meeting is really an opportunity for the public, for young people, for users or those in recovery to come out and really let their voices be heard,” said Linda Auerback, substance abuse prevention supervisor at the Carroll County Health Department and the coordinator of the event. “We will have all these people in the room at the same time, to answer these questions and to guide people, but also to listen.”

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Forty people died of drug or alcohol overdoses in Carroll County in 2015. Twenty two of those deaths were related to heroin, up from 16 such deaths in 2014, according to DHMH statistics.

In the first six months of 2016, according to Carroll County Sheriff’s Office statistics, there have been seven deaths related to heroin and 59 nonfatal overdoses.

Here is more information:

Read the full article for more information.

Previous Coverage from The Carroll County Times:

Carroll County saw more than 40 heroin and opioid related deaths in 2015

Beth Schmidt lost a child to heroin. She wants you to keep yours