Alabama has one of the highest rates of prescription drug abuse and a state task force is attempting to do something about it. The Alabama Drug Abuse Task Force announced the "Zero Addiction" campaign today with a website and radio and television ads.
The television and radio spots will begin airing in the next two weeks. A website lists treatment facilities and options in each Alabama county.
Task Force Chairman Barry Matson says they hope to spark honest conversations in families.
Drug Enforcement Agency data shows Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana were among the top 11 states for prescribing hydrocodone in 2014.
Alabama’s legislators will be headed to a special session later this summer to devise a working General Fund budget.
The Senate passed a budget late last week that included $200 million in cuts to various state agencies. Governor Robert Bentley vetoed that budget, calling it “unworkable” and extremely damaging to Alabama residents.
APR’s political commentator Steve Flowers says one of the main reasons the General Fund budget was so difficult to pass is what lawmakers were hearing from the people they represent.
“Their constituents don’t want any new taxes. They’re going home and they’re hearing their constituents say, ‘Dale, I don’t care if you close the prisons down or what you do, I don’t want you voting for any new taxes.’ So that’s what they’re hearing, and that’s why they’re responding like they are.”
Lawmakers will likely enter a special session to pass a General Fund budget sometime in August.
June not only marks the beginning of summer, but also the start of registration for alligator hunting season in Alabama.
Gator hunters can apply for official state tags between now and July. One tag means hunters can catch one gator in one of the four zones around the State.
Kim Nix is with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. She says there are a couple of reasons people sign up to hunt a gator…
“Well a lot of people are hunting the gator for the meat. I believe that the challenge is also an interest to people because it is a very challenging type of thing. Many of them have not done it before so, it can be a novelty. They’re hunting for the meat and also the hide.”
A record setting alligator was caught last year, weighing in at eleven hundred pounds. It was stuffed and is currently on display at the Montgomery Zoo.