This week on Inside Appalachia, for nearly a century, the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival has staged a formal dance. We visit the festival and learn about a manual that’s been passed down for generations. Also, abortion is illegal in most cases in Tennessee. A photographer spent a year following one mother who was denied an abortion.
Home » Trump Takes Enforcement Approach To Opioid Crisis
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Trump Takes Enforcement Approach To Opioid Crisis
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President Donald Trump addressed the opioid crisis affecting the Ohio Valley region in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“We must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushers if we are going to succeed in stopping this scourge,” he said. “My administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need.”
But with few specifics and little money so far to carry out the president’s plans, the public can only go off of what those in his administration have said. And that indicates an approach emphasizing law enforcement rather than funding for treatment.
With a promise to “treat serious criminals seriously,” Sessions touted the new DEA office in Louisville and recent deployment of mobile squads focused on diversion of prescription painkillers.
“That will help us find the abusers, make more arrests, secure more convictions—and ultimately help us reduce the number of illegal prescription drugs,” Sessions said.
He also announced a 45-day “surge” in focus by DEA specialists to closely monitor the habits of prescribers and pharmacists.
OD Deaths Rise
But supply reduction efforts without dedicated resources to addiction treatment won’t solve the problem, according to the former director of addiction treatment facilities in southeast Ohio.
“I think there need to be resources to provide both for rehab and for legal sanctions, including incarceration for those who are not interested in rehab,” Dr. Joe Gay said.
Treatment resources play a factor in the death rates of Ohio counties, according to Gay.
“I have seen trends that make me think that in counties where there’s effective treatment that’s readily accessible, that the death rates are lower,” he said.
This week the U.S. Department of Education is launching a multimillion-dollar program to help boost the completion of FAFSA nationwide. We’ll also learn more about the state’s largest methamphetamine seizure in history. And we’ll hear about a rupture in the Mountain Valley Pipeline during a pressure test.
Winners of the 2023 Virginias Associated Press Broadcasters Awards were announced March 23 at the Awards Luncheon and Annual Membership Meeting at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. WVPB brought home five first place awards and seven second place awards in eight different categories.
GATC West Virginia, a health tech hub, was awarded $5 million to hire new staff. The company uses artificial intelligence to test the efficacy of new medications.
Republicans in the West Virginia House of Delegates have backed a resolution allowing residents to vote to add protection from euthanasia to the state constitution during this fall's general election.