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McDowell County’s has an epidemic of opioid drug use and overdose drug deaths. But efforts are underway now to combat this serious problem.

According to state statistics, McDowell County’s rate of opioid prescriptions is significantly higher than the state average. In 2016, 112 opioid pills were prescribed in McDowell County, on average, for each of the county’s approximately 45,600 residents – the ninth-highest rate of all counties statewide, according to state health data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

And statistics for 2014 show that McDowell County had high rates of drug overdose deaths – between 18 to 20 deaths for every 100,000 residents. That rate was about three times the rate of deaths 15 years earlier, in 1999, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But a new committee is seeking to tackle this epidemic not just in McDowell County but throughout western North Carolina. In addition, a rally scheduled for April 29 at the McDowell County Courthouse will celebrate recovery from substance abuse and confront this local problem publically and in a positive, uplifting manner.