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HRMC EMPLOYEES GET 'STREET SMART'

ROANOKE RAPIDS - Staff members at Halifax Regional Medical Center got some "street smarts" from members of the Halifax County Drug Task Force Thursday.  The "Street Smarts" drug education program was started in 1997 by Halifax County Sheriff Jeff Frazier to educate citizens in the county to identify drugs and recognize signs of drugs use as well as teach residents the impact drugs can have on the county.  "I just think that's part of our job," Frazier said.  "We just care about kids."

Since the program started, the department has made over a hundred presentations at schools, churches, businesses, and civic organizations throughout the county. 

"Basically we're going to be talking about the most commonly used controlled substances," said Lt.  E.M.  Buffaloe, one of the officers who was in charge of Thursday's presentation at the hospital.  "It's going to be hands-on."

Some of the drugs discussed and viewed by hospital workers Thursday were crack cocaine, marijuana, and LSD.  ( P ) "The most common thing professional people don't seem to know is the impact drugs have on the community," Buffaloe said.  "90 percent of crimes are associated with drugs."

Emergency Room Clinical Leader Charlotte Ferguson said one of the most important things hospital workers could learn from "street smarts" was the street names of drugs.  "We all know the medical avenues of drugs," she said.  "But do we know the terms around us."

" ( Patients will ) tell us they used a bud or a hard hit," Ferguson said.  "It's a big problem, we see a lot of it in our emergency room."

"This was more than just an emergency room problem, so we opened it up to the whole house," she added. 

Ferguson said 46 staff members showed up at the first session at 8 a.m., so the deputies put on a second presentation at 4 p.m.  for more staff members and nursing students.  Throughout the day, Ferguson said 75 people participated in the "Street Smarts" program at the hospital. 

"It's community awareness," Ferguson said.  "It's what's out there that our kids might be experiencing."