Don't let a new GBI report on prescription drug overdose deaths lull you into a false sense of security.
That's the word from first responders in Northwest Georgia.
The report notes a decline in deaths related to pill overdoses last year.
Just over 500 such deaths are reported in 2011.
That's nearly 80-percent of all drug related deaths... and 50 fewer deaths than the year before.
It brings us back to the 2009 level.
Patrick Doyle, Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force, "We're going from an extremely bad problem to a still real bad problem. The numbers aren't really dropping back a large percentage and it's really not evident in our communities that the number of pill overdoses is going down."
The Emergency Department Director of Erlanger at Hutcheson tells us people come in everyday asking for prescription drugs by name.
And the hospital continues to see cases where users unintentionally harm themselves and others.
