Every 19 minutes, someone overdoses on prescription drugs in this country, according to Jane Wenner, Gloucester County’s public awareness and outreach coordinator. This epidemic, long considered a problem mainly in urban areas, is taking a sharply increasing toll in Gloucester and Mathews, and is beginning to garner the attention of local officials. 

Wenner gave a presentation on prescription drug and heroin abuse to the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors during its meeting Tuesday night in the colonial courthouse, and the board pledged its help—first to better track drug abuse in the county and then to allocate resources necessary to help combat the issue locally.

According to Wenner, the prescription drug epidemic began to come more and more into the spotlight about two-and-a-half years ago. Shortly thereafter she said Gloucester’s emergency management department began to take a look at the impact it was having on Gloucester. 

“A lot of people...