Forum at Ho Chunk on area’s surging drug epidemic

Forum open to public, includes dinner

A forum tomorrow at the Ho Chunk Three Rivers House in La Crosse is planned as a shot across the bow at the area’s surging drug epidemic.

Tena Quackenbush in Ho Chunk family services says something has to wake the community up to a huge and growing drug problem.

“I grew up in Jackson County,” Quackenbush said. “And, I’ve been gone for my whole life – for 30-some years – and I came back and, this is what I came back to. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The forum, which begins at 4:30 p.m., will include police, health educators and addiction specialists.

“It’s going to take the whole community as a whole to even begin to chip away at this,” Quackenbush said. “A lot of people know we have a drug problem, but a lot of people really don’t know the data of what’s really going on.”

Ho Chunk’s Three Rivers House on Main Street is located across from the library. It’s free. Dinner is included.