Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch came to the University of Kentucky to talk about the heroin opioid epidemic. Lynch decided to bring awareness to the heroin and opioid epidemic because President Barack Obama made Sept. 18-23 National Heroin and Opioid Awareness Week.
While Lynch was here, she talked about how to prevent people from using heroin and opioid, how officers should enforce it and how users should be go through treatment. Lynch believes that the epidemic is a public health issue.
“We are focusing our enforcement efforts on this problem because we have to stop pipeline poison into our communities. But, arrests and prosecution will not end the opioid epidemic on their own.” Lynch said.
Lynch also pointed out that drug trafficking is not the reason for the overdoses, but it is the medicine in one’s medicine cabinets. She said the DEA is trying to work with pharmacies and doctors to make sure prescriptions are being used responsibly in people’s homes. The DEA is also working on a program with parents, teachers and high and middle school students to raise awareness of heroin and opioid abuse. The program is called Operation Prevention and should be available online for all school in October.
According to CDC, in 2015 more than 1200 people in Kentucky died of drug overdose, a 15 percent increase from the previous year. A quarter of those deaths were due to heroin.
Lynch is grateful that UK is helping to stop the drug abuse in Kentucky.