SEABROOK — The police station will host the Dec. 3 meeting of the Seacoast Substance Abuse Task Force, which will focus on the problem of prescription drug abuse in the region.
In mid-September, police departments in the southeastern corner of New Hampshire created a regional task force to tackle the epidemic of underage drinking and drug abuse in the area.
The task force is coordinated by Cindy Derosier of the Allies in Substance Abuse Prevention program run out of the Seacoast United Way. According to Seabrook police Lt. Michael Gallagher, who is staffing the task force with Detective Brett Walker, members of the group chose to tackle the problem of prescription drug abuse as part of the task force's primary objectives.
Seabrook has experienced a sharp increase in prescription drug abuse since 2003, with abuse from illegally used addictive pills making up more than 80 percent of the drug abuse problem in the town. In recent years, four young men died in Seabrook within 10 months from overdoses of prescription drugs.
The new task force will focus on two efforts to prevent prescription drug abuse. The first is a "take-back" program, Gallagher said, which will allow residents in the region to get rid of unused, addictive prescription medication at drop-off sites.
Such a program is important because most teenagers who experiment with the recreational use of prescription drugs get their first supplies of pills from their own home medicine chests or those of friends and family members, Gallagher said. Disposing of unused prescription in a safe way — flushing some drugs down the toilet is not advised — is an important part of keeping kids away from potentially dangerous drugs, he said.
"We're thinking of having an event when people can turn in unused prescriptions for proper disposal," Gallagher said. "Disposal of the drug can be anonymous."
The second initiative is getting legislation passed in New Hampshire to create a statewide prescription drug database reporting system. The system would be able to track those who abuse prescription drugs, he said, by noticing patterns indicating drugs are being used or sold illegally.
Procedures would be written into the legislation to protect the privacy of those getting potentially addictive drugs legitimately and focus on those obtaining multiple prescriptions for the same drug from a variety of doctors and filling them at different pharmacies. Such behavior can indicate drug addiction or the sale of drugs for illegal purposes.
Every other New England state has a database for this purpose, and public health and law enforcement officials worry that without a similar law in the state, New Hampshire is becoming the state of choice for those who abuse or distribute prescription drugs illegally.
Gallagher will speak with Seabrook's newly elected legislative delegation — Mark Preston, Al Weare, Koko and Amy Perkins — urging them to co-sponsor the bill.
He and members of the task force are counting of residents in Seabrook and the region to help get the bill passed into law.
"We'll need residents to write to the governor, speaker of the House, Senate president and, of course, our their own legislators to tell them how important it is to pass this law," Gallagher said.
