Tennessee Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro), Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) and Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess are joining Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Commissioner E. Douglas Varney and others to address Tennessee's Rx drug abuse epidemic, Tuesday September 30, 2014 at 3:00pm at Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital in Murfreesboro.

"These lawmakers, along with representatives from local government, law enforcement, the courts, anti-drug coalitions and people in recovery are coming together to address Tennessee's number one drug epidemic," said Commissioner Varney. "Too often the end result is overdose deaths, increased hospital admissions and drug-related crimes. When we all work together, we can beat this."

It's estimated that nearly five-percent of adults in Tennessee (about 221,000) have abused pain medications in the past year for non-medical purposes, and of those nearly 70,000 are addicted and require treatment.

Source and More Information:

Mike Machak
Director, Office of Communications
Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

View the "Prescription for Success" Report/Summary online tn.gov/mental/prescriptionforsuccess