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The Arab American community in Metro Detroit is battling with the issue of untimely deaths of several young men from abuse of prescription drugs.
"All these young men are being found dead in Dearborn. What's going on there?" asked one person on social media, according to the paper.
Dr. Sam Fawaz tells the paper:
"I do believe in Dearborn there is a higher than average narcotic abuse rate than the surrounding area."
The paper reports:
Ghada Abdallah, a local pharmacist who recently became the first Arab American woman to be elected onto the Michigan Pharmacists Association Board, is launching a new campaign titled "End the Silence Now," to bring awareness of prescription drug abuse to the community.
Samer Hijazi and Ali Harb of the Arab Ameirican News report that Abdallah said young adults in the community are battling addiction with drugs such as Adderall, Norco, Oxycodone, Morphine, muscle relaxers, cough syrup and Xanax. Many of these drugs are a gateway to heroin.
"In Arab American families… they just don't know how to deal with it," Abdallah told the paper. "It's just embarrassing. But even so, in many cases everyone in the family knows and they end up becoming enablers for the person."
