Polk Against Drugs is inviting the community to come out and become partners during an upcoming meeting scheduled for next Tuesday in Cedartown.

The Polk County Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters within the Det. Kristen Hearne Memorial Public Safety Complex in Cedartown will be hosting the event scheduled for Tuesday, February 15, 2022 to start at 6 p.m.

The address is at 55 Cline Ingram Jackson Drive, Cedartown.




The upcoming meeting’s goal is to bring together community partners and those interested in volunteering to help combat the drug problem in Polk County.

Executive Director Vann Blankenship was recently hired to take over leadership of the program, along with utilizing grant resources that will fund Polk Against Drugs for the next five years after funding from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention was provided.

The PAD’s overall goal is to target and combat drug use in the community, but more specifically in coming months they’ll also be narrowing that focus on teen vaping and alcohol use, which has greatly increased in the past years as the availability of vapes become more commonplace.

Blankenship said that part of the initial process is going over data from surveys provided by students within Polk School District, which showed that middle and high school student vaping and alcohol use has increased over the past years, with up to 60% of those surveyed admitting they had tried alcohol or vapes in the past year, and a growing number of students who admit to daily vaping use and drinks.

The CDC grant that Polk Against Drugs received was gained to combat this particular problem, but it isn’t the only focus of the organization.

Additional plans are also in the works to seek help in further combatting the increased use of heavy drugs like methamphetamine, heroin, and prescription narcotics as well as funding and resources become available.

Polk Against Drugs was originally formed to combat the methamphetamine problem in Polk County.

Those interested in taking part can meet at the facility, or reach out to Blankenship at vblankenship@georgiapreventionproject.org.




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