Multi-State Alliance Forms Against Heroin, Prescription Pill Epidemic
100,000 people die annually from hospital acquired infections, 58,000 homicides annually, 40,000 commit suicide annually, 35,000 die annually in car accidents. We can’t make healthcare providers wash their hands and other things that prevents hospital acquired infections, how do you prevent all those suicides, we continue to sell cars, and we kept killing each other off. But all of those deaths are less important than those who suffer from mental health addiction… and their answer to this problem ??? The summit seeks to target the national and regional problem “by dismantling drug trafficking organizations that distribute heroin and prescription pills and by increasing prevention and educational efforts,” the release said.
U.S. Attorneys and leaders of federal law enforcement agencies from six states met Wednesday in Detroit to share strategies to combat the heroin and prescription pill epidemic across the region.
One of the participants was William C. Killian, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release that the summit was called in response to the national epidemic of heroin and prescription pill abuse that has hit Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia particularly hard.
OVERDOSE DEATHS
Heroin overdose deaths in the United States have tripled from 2010 to 2013. Nationally, the number of deaths from all drug overdoses exceeded 43,000 last year, more deaths than from traffic accidents. Heroin use in the United States has doubled from 2007 to 2012, the news release said.
One of the purposes of the summit was to discuss a regional strategic initiative as part of the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force program. Under the initiative, law enforcement and prosecutors across the region will investigate and prosecute the movement of heroin and prescription pills from Michigan and Ohio into Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.
This effort includes action by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, DEA, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations unit.
As part of the initiative, the three High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area programs in the region — Michigan, Ohio and Appalachia — will work with federal, state and local partners to increase enforcement of heroin and pill trafficking and to target drug distribution that results in overdoses and deaths, the release said.
HEROIN USE ON RISE
The initiative also includes a commitment by each U.S. attorney to engage in districtwide anti-heroin and prescription pill programs.
Tennessee has one of the highest rates of prescription drug abuse in the nation, Killian said.
“However, like many other states, we are now seeing a rise in heroin use as the prescription drugs are becoming more expensive and difficult to obtain,” Killian said. “This summit was convened to help find ways to strengthen the coordinated efforts of local, state and federal law enforcement in their fight against these growing addictions and the resulting rise in overdose deaths.”
In the Midwest, opioid deaths have increased 62 percent. The summit seeks to target the national and regional problem “by dismantling drug trafficking organizations that distribute heroin and prescription pills and by increasing prevention and educational efforts,” the release said.
MULTI-AGENCY RESPONSE
The effort was announced jointly by Killian and other U.S. Attorneys Barbara L. McQuade, Eastern District of Michigan; Kerry Harvey, Eastern District of Kentucky; Patrick A. Miles Jr., Western District of Michigan; Steven Dettelbach, Northern District of Ohio; Carter Stewart, Southern District of Ohio; John Kuhn Jr., Western District of Kentucky; David J. Hickton, Western District of Pennsylvania; David Rivera, Middle District of Tennessee; Edward Stanton, Western District of Tennessee; William Ihlenfeld, II, Northern District of West Virginia and R. Booth Goodwin, II, Southern District of West Virginia.
Directors of High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Abraham Azzam, Michigan, Derek Siegle, Ohio, and Frank Rapier, Appalachia, will also participate.
Participating federal agencies include the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. U.S. Attorney Hickton also co-chairs the national Heroin Task Force.
‘EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS’
Daniel Salter, special agent in charge, DEA, Atlanta Division, said, “The abuse of prescription pills, heroin and fentanyl, an opioid 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, has become a problem of epidemic proportions across the United States.
“This epidemic affects people of all backgrounds with no respect to race, gender, age or socio-economic class. DEA and our federal, state and local law enforcement partners are committed to attacking the drug trafficking organizations that distribute these poisons in our communities without regard to the deadly consequences of their actions,” Salter said.
Filed under: General Problems
“”However, like many other states, we are now seeing a rise in heroin use as the prescription drugs are becoming more expensive and difficult to obtain,” Killian said. “This summit was convened to help find ways to strengthen the coordinated efforts of local, state and federal law enforcement in their fight against these growing addictions and the resulting rise in overdose deaths.”
So
If prescription drug scarcity is causing an epidemic of heroin….
Then….
Why are we after the doctors again…?