News Taffy

Over the past 2 years many of us have been trying to address the growing problems that our community has been experiencing with our youth dying or falling into chemical addiction from prescription drugs. What we have learned is that a community’s silence and denial are the major contributing factors that allow chemical addiction to spread through our neighborhoods. 

What is more alarming is that for years Craighead County has ranked as one of the highest rates of teens abusing prescription drugs in Arkansas and our community at large has done very little to address the growing problem of chemical addiction until the start of the local Out of the Dark Movement.

In 2009, Out of the Dark Inc. established School Chapters in all of our public school districts to provide prevention and leadership skills to our youth and since then, our student surveys report a decrease in the use of these narcotics. However, in order to sustain this type of success our school chapters have to have the support and involvement of our community.

Therefore, on Monday, March 28, 2011, we will be reaching out to our City Officials, Chamber Members, Faith-based Organizations, Civic Groups, Medical Community, Media, Government Agencies, Service-providing Agencies and Community Leaders at a “LOCAL LEVEL UP” town hall meeting that is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at the City Council Chambers (Huntington Building), 900 West Monroe.  There will be a presentation about what we all can do to change the future of the spread of chemical addiction in our community and there will be several local students that will speak publicly about these issues. The meeting Monday night will determine if the citizens in our community are really serious about addressing the local drug problems and if we are committed to investing in our future. I hope to see you there.

Skip Mooney, Jr.