Coalition to show video on prescription drug abuse at Thursday community meeting

Battling the problem of prescription drug abuse among the county’s youth will be the topic of Thursday night’s Drug Free Dickson Coalition community meeting. The coalition will meet at 6 pm Thursday in the new 911 Communication Center at 201 West Chestnut Street, between the Municipal Building and Dickson Senior Citizens Center. Coalition Coordinator A.J. O’Dell said the meeting will feature a video in which several parents talk about their experiences with teenage children who suffered from prescription medication abuse, including one young man who was headed to being a star football player at Tennessee State University. The coalition is not only targeting the use of alcohol and illegal drugs among the county’s youth, but also creating strategies to address the abuse of prescription drugs, which local law enforcement officers have said is a fast-growing problem. O’Dell said the meeting is open to parents, community members and youth who are concerned about the growing abuse of alcohol and drugs in Dickson County. “We need your help. We need, no, we must stop this epidemic as well as the underage drinking from spreading any further in our community,” O’Dell says in an announcement of the meeting. For more information on Thursday’s meeting or the coalition, contact O’Dell at 686-3128. Funded by a state grant, the coalition operates out of office space donated by the Dickson County Help Center at 103 West College Street.