Members of the Kirkland community will be hosting an event called Operation H.O.P.E (heroin, opiate, prevention education) on May 31 at the Kirkland Performance Center from 6:15-8:45 p.m.

Dana Adams is the event organizer, and said recent overdoses in the city have gotten more people talking about the problem which has been ravaging the country for the past half-decade, but which has slipped under the radar locally until recently.

“I don’t think that it’s just until recently that it’s really kind of coming to the forefront,” she said. “I think there’s more that’s been talked about on TV and the documentaries that have been coming out.”

Parents of overdose victim Amber Roberts, who died last June at the age of 19, will be speaking along with Kirkland police officers, an addiction recovery physician from Evergreen Healthcare and a chemical dependency specialist.

The documentary 20/20 Breaking Point: Heroin in America will be played from 6:30-7:15 p.m., after which the panel will field questions.

The renewed attention on opiate overdoses, which include prescription painkillers and heroin, follows the deaths of Roberts, as well as the deaths of two other young women who may have died from opiate overdoses in the city over the past year.

“It’s just basically originated out of people voicing their concerns so it’s really a very local effort to try and educate and hopefully prevent this from happening or continuing to take a stronger hold here in Kirkland,” Adams said.

For more information, contact Adams at danavadams@windermere.com