Drug abuse

... TownOnline.com - Local News: Numbers viewed on local drug use A:hover {color: CC6600} Home Reading Advocate Local News RSS Feed Numbers viewed on local drug use By Mac McEntire/ Staff Writer Thursday, March 30, 2006 E-mail article View text version View most popular Members of the town's newly-created substance abuse task force viewed some sobering statistics about underage drug and alcohol abuse in Reading at a recent meeting.

Members from each of the group's subcommittees met last Thursday to go over their progress, and to suggest recommendations to make when the entire task force meets as a whole on Thursday, April 6.

The meeting kicked off with a look at some statistics about the issue, compiled with the help of the police and fire departments, the Reading Health Department, and the 2005 Reading Memorial High School youth risk behavior survey.

In 2005, there were 36 drug-related arrests in Reading.

Of these, 17 were Reading residents, and 12 were juveniles.

In just January and February of 2006, the number of arrests were 18, more than half of 2005's total.

Seven of these were Reading residents and four were juveniles.

For incidents where an overdose, either alcohol or drugs, was listed as the cause of death, there were four in 2005, down by half from eight in 2004.

For non-lethal overdoses, there were 11 in 2004, nine of which were Reading residents, and eight in 2005, all of which were residents.

The first two months of 2006 saw two non-f...

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