Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Star Correspondent

The Elizabethton Police Department, Carter County Sheriff’s Department and the Appalachian League have come together to form a community charity league to help with a drug take-back initiative.

“We hope that all 10 teams in the league will cooperate,” said River Riders GM Kiva Fuller. “It will be a league-wide initiative, and one part of this is the prescription drug take-back day. This gives the community a way for people to dispose of unused prescription drugs. The coalition will be here on June 20 with a disposal barrel to take care of and dispose of unused prescription drugs.”

Nash Acuna is the interim director of the program that gives away samples of Narcan, which is used for overdoses, fentanyl test strips and drug lock boxes, and offers counseling and help for those people trying to escape the grip of addiction.

“Fentanyl is 100 times more powerful than morphine, and people are putting it in every type of street drug,” Acuna said. “People don’t know what is in what they are buying, and that is the danger. Fentanyl was originally created for people in end-stage cancer to ease their pain, but it has become something that is now used to increase profit for sellers. We have seen it even in vapes that kids are using.

“Every parent should have a box of Narcan, whether they think their child is subjected to it or not. You just don’t know anymore, and there is no room for experimentation. The Health Department can give out boxes to anyone that is 18 or older, and we do training to help people get knowledge of what to look for. Church groups or any kind of group looking to get training on drug prevention is welcome, and we are there to help anyone looking to get help.”

For more information, you can call the Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition at (423) 571-3987.