Anti-Heroin Program Launched by Ohio Attorney General

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has announced a new program to fight heroin addiction, heroin abuse and overdose. DeWine, who launched the program on Monday cited the huge number of heroin-related deaths in the city and said, "These are frightening numbers."

According to information collected from 47 counties in the state, there has been a 107 percent increase in heroin-related deaths from 2010 to 2013, with Lorain County alone having 22 deaths this year.

This new program will be spearheaded by a group named the Attorney General's Heroin Unit and would comprise of investigators, lawyers and drug abuse awareness experts working together to reduce the number of heroin related deaths.

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While announcing the program DeWine stressed on the objectives of the unit, which is not to instruct the county officials on how to handle the heroin problem, but to advise them and educate them on the methods that work effectively to reduce heroin related deaths in other counties.

Adding that the officials often disagree and "some counties are in denial," DeWine said that the county officials need to recognize heroin abuse as a significant problem in Ohio and should learn methods to reduce heroin use.

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He further admitted there is no easy solution and said the problem could be solved only if law enforcement, educators, and those who provided treatment worked together.

Some counties have been able to reduce heroin use wherein efforts were led by victims of heroin overdose or by families of victims. Pointing out the success of community efforts, DeWine stressed that success was achieved by "local communities working together and rallying (the community)."

Drug traffickers seem to be running rampant in Loraine County where within last week alone there were 25 cases of opiate overdose and two deaths. DeWine said "Lorain County has a really tragic spike."

He said the idea to form a special unit to fight heroin addiction and heroin-related deaths, occurred to him after traveling for a year around Ohio and discussing the heroin epidemic with local officials. The discussions led him to request coroners across Ohio to compile statistics for heroin overdose deaths in each county and report them. The reports confirmed the presence of a heroin epidemic that's responsible for killing people with regularity in Ohio.