The United States Attorney’s Office, in partnership with the Eastern Iowa Heroin Initiative, has scheduled a Town Hall Meeting on June 8th to discuss the heroin epidemic making its way into Eastern Iowa. Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., with 47,055 lethal drug overdoses in 2014. Opioid addiction is driving this epidemic, with 18,893 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 10,574 overdose deaths related to heroin in 2014. Waterloo joins other Iowa cities facing this threat.
Viewed as a national challenge requiring a community solution, the meeting will bring the community together to exchange information and to discuss strategies to address the epidemic plaguing our state. A guest speaker will share her story of her son’s involvement and death from heroin use. A “Call to Action” will be introduced to the community by the Eastern Iowa Heroin Initiative.
U.S. Attorney Kevin W. Techau will be present. The event is open to the public.
The event will be held at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, 225 Commercial Street in Waterloo. The events begins at 6:00 p.m., and ends at 8:00 p.m.
I hope the discussion includes eliminating welfare benefits for the drug addicts & alcoholics ! Those people chose to use drugs…it wasn’t forced on them.
Well…….. isn’t that special.
You are sad. You need to do some research on addiction especially opiate addiction and how it has led to increased heroin addiction and use. In case you didn’t know, opiate addiction is the number 1 problem in this country after alcohol and nicotine addiction. And it crosses economic, social, cultural and ethnic lines. Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases just as cancer is a disease. In addition, the majority of people addicted to heroin and opiates are not on welfare therefore your opinion isn’t going to be a major topic of discussion at these type of meetings.