City officials continued their efforts to curb Madison’s heroin epidemic at the source Monday, hosting a follow-up on a task force summit held earlier this year.

Monday’s summit detailed the progress Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Mayor Paul Soglin have made in working with the Safe Communities Initiative to give people options to prevent further narcotics abuse.

Parisi and Soglin joined with representatives from the city and the Dane County Sheriff’s Office to discuss improvements to the system since the last summit.

Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney said the problem stems largely from heroin being brought into the community from a variety of locations outside the city.

“Opiate addiction affects everyone,” Parisi said. “People drive into Madison from rural areas to get heroin and shoot up.”

At the summit held in January, Soglin and Parisi said poison-related deaths, the majority of which are drug overdoses, are the number one cause of death in the county.

Safe Communities Executive Director Cheryl Wittke said in an interview with The Badger Herald the last summit drew nearly 130 people.

She said Safe Communities wanted to let people know the root cause of narcotics addiction is often the result of having excess prescription drugs in the home.

“Seventy percent of people abusing narcotics are getting them from people they know,” Wittke said.

Safe Communities has now obtained funds to further its MedDrop program, which allows people to drop off excess prescription drugs that could be used in an abusive manner, Wittke said.

According to a statement from Soglin and Parisi, the number of MedDrop boxes has been increased from four to 10 and are “fully available.”

Wittke said Safe Communities has held an event twice a year where people could come to the MedDrop areas and deposit their drugs.

“This initiative gives people a really easy way to [get rid of excess prescription medications],” Wittke said.

She said though Safe Communities does not currently have the data to gauge changes in the amount of drug abuses since the last summit, Dane County Narcotics and Gang Taskforce has seen a leveling off of heroin overdoses.

Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf said in an interview with The Badger Herald that MedDrop is one of the best practices to gain control over excess prescription drugs in homes, especially painkillers, by enabling people to take the drugs to their local police station.

Woulf said this is crucial to preventing the drugs from “falling into the wrong hands,” as heroin addicts often start out addicted to prescription drugs.

“[This summit] is sort of a ‘quick-fix’ thing to get prescription drugs off the street and make the public aware of the continuing efforts of Safe Communities and their partnership with the city,” Woulf said.

Safe Communities is also partnering with the medical community to address prescribing practices, Wittke said.

She said the next steps involve an effort to work with children to educate them about primary prevention at an event May 30. The event, “Prevention of Youth Drug and Alcohol Abuse: What Works, What Doesn’t,” will showcase preventative techniques, the statement said.

“It’s such a huge issue, and it’s been grabbing headlines lately,” Wittke said. “We feel it’s important to keep the community up to date on our efforts.”