It's been one year since a group of local concerned citizens decided to take on the heroin epidemic with a town-hall meeting.

At that time, they outlined a plan designed to deal with ways to take illegal drugs off the streets and help those who find themselves addicted to those drugs.Heroin was named enemy number one due to its availability and low cost. Many people turn to the illegal drug after their prescriptions for opiate related pain killers run out and they aren't able to legally get more.In the year since that town hall, several groups have been working hard as advocates for the addicted, including the nonprofit organizations the Tamaqua Area Faith and Fellowship Network, the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership and Safer Streets For Tamaqua's Little Feet.Coordinated by Lehigh Carbon Community College faculty member Todd Zimmerman, that first town hall brought together a five member panel, led by Dr. Rachel Levine, Physician General of Pennsylvania.Dr. Levine will again travel to Tamaqua for a town-hall meeting on heroin, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. April 12, in the Tamaqua Middle School Auditorium. She will be joined by Schuylkill County Judge James P. Goodman, Carbon County Judge Joseph Matika and Dr. Ernest Sully, medical director of St. Luke's Care Now.The subject matter for the town hall will be "Heroin, One Year Later, Lessons Learned." Updates on the prescription opioid and heroin health crisis, as well as drug and veterans courts will be provided.The public is welcome.The auditorium is located at 502 Penn St., Tamaqua.