WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — A survey showing how Marathon County residents perceive illegal drug use shows people are more concerned about the problem now than in years past.
The summary of the Marathon County Community Assessment was made public Tuesday at Northcentral Technical College. Melissa Dotter says the survey showed some changes in people’s perception of the drug problem. This third biennial survey shows that 75-percent of the respondents were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about prescription medication misuse or abuse. The same survey shows more people know how to properly dispose of unneeded medications, but many are choosing to hang onto them too long.
Dotter says getting rid of unnecessary medications properly is the safest thing to do. “We’ve been finding more and more people are holding onto those expired medications, which is contradictory when they believe, coming through our report, that individuals that are looking to abuse medications get them by stealing them from a family member or friend, so the more we have the medications in the home and accessible, the more it puts us at risk for someone to either take them to abuse them or accidentally ingest them.”
Dotter says she’s not sure why people are choosing to keep the painkillers and other medications they don’t need. “More people are aware, but I think we’re continuing to be part of the problem by holding onto them when we no longer need them or they’re expired.”
The survey showed that 64% of respondents believe people get opioid painkillers by stealing them from friends and relatives. It also showed more people believe the quality of life is down in the area, far more people have expired medicines in their homes now than five years ago, and more people realize getting high on prescription drugs is as dangerous as street drugs.
Dotter says the data from the survey will help them with their community education efforts. “We’re going to be using this report as the catalyst to start conversations in the community about this issue, to continue raising awareness on the issue, also looking at what training’s need to be offered for our partners, and really looking at what policies on the individual business or organization or community level we can put into place to help reduce this burden.”
The survey was again conducted through the University of River Falls, and over 2,200 surveys were mailed out. They got 349 back from Wausau, Rib Mountain, Schofield, Weston, and Rothschild plus another 155 surveys from elsewhere in Marathon County.
Anyone that has unwanted or unneeded medications, there are medication drop boxes located in several counties. Two of the six drop boxes in Marathon County are open twenty-four hours a day. A map showing all of the Wisconsin locations is available at the Attorney General’s Dose of Reality website.
