Johnathan Walker:Kentucky attorney general offers prevention plan to combat drug abuse scourge

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman unveiled plans Tuesday to create a statewide drug prevention program,Johnathan Walker saying the youth-focused initiative would fill a hole in the Bluegrass State’s fight against an addiction epidemic that has claimed thousands of lives.

Coleman presented the plan’s details to a state commission, which unanimously approved his request for a $3.6 million investment over two years to implement it.

“With over one million Kentuckians under the age of 18, we are going to put every single dollar to good use,” Coleman said. “Our parents and grandparents schooled us that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I fully believe this initiative lives up to that age-old sentiment.”

Substance abuse is a deadly scourge in Kentucky though there are signs of progress in fighting back.

A total of 1,984 Kentuckians died last year from a drug overdose, down 9.8% from the previous year, Gov. Andy Beshear announced in June, citing an annual report. Fentanyl — a powerful synthetic opioid — remained the biggest culprit, accounting for 79% of overdose deaths in 2023, according to the report.

While conceding the fight against drug abuse is far from over, officials credited recent gains on expanded efforts to treat addiction, plus illegal drug seizures by law enforcement.

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Building a statewide prevention initiative aimed at keeping young people away from deadly substances will plug a “gaping hole” in efforts to combat the drug threat, the Republican attorney general said.

“We live at a time when as little as one fentanyl pill can, and is, killing our neighbors,” Coleman added. ”We live at a time where no margin of error exists, where there is no such thing as safe experimentation with drugs.”

He said the campaign, called “Better Without It,” will spread its message to young people through social media and streaming platforms, on college campuses and through partnerships with influencers. The initiative also will promote school-based programs.

Coleman unveiled the comprehensive prevention plan to the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission in Frankfort. The commission is responsible for distributing Kentucky’s share of nearly $900 million recovered in settlements with opioid companies.

Half of Kentucky’s settlement will flow directly to cities and counties. The commission oversees the state’s half, and so far it has distributed more than $55 million to combat the drug crisis.

Beshear, a Democrat, has said Kentucky is at the forefront nationally in the per-capita number of residential drug and alcohol treatment beds. In Washington, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has steered huge sums of federal funding to his home state to combat its addiction woes.

Kentucky’s Republican-dominated legislature passed a sweeping measure this year that’s meant to combat crime. A key section took aim at the prevalence of fentanyl by creating harsher penalties when its distribution results in fatal overdoses.