On the Job 

HUNTINGTON, W.VA. — The heroin epidemic recognizes no boundaries, so Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear, and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey united on Oct. 27 to host a tri-state conference aimed at fighting their mutual enemy. 

“We wanted to do this because we have a common problem,” DeWine told the crowd gathered at the New Life Church in Huntington, W.Va. (Last year, the county in which Huntington is located reported more than 900 drug-related overdoses, including 70 deaths.)

 “It is important for us to recognize that it’s going to take all of us working together to begin to get ahold of that problem.”

The “Taking Back Our Communities: Combating the Opiate Epidemic” meeting brought together citizens, counselors, faith-based groups, and law enforcement.

During the conference, law enforcement officers went behind closed doors for a roundtable discussion about investigations, techniques, and upcoming initiatives. The other attendees listened to a panel discussion about treatment and recovery. The group reunited at the end for a discussion on help and healing and a community action exercise.

DeWine and members of the Attorney General’s Heroin Unit have been working throughout Ohio to support grass-roots efforts to battle drug abuse. The gathering was the seventh in a series, and the third multistate event involving the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. Previous conferences have been held in Beachwood, Circleville, Mason, Wooster, Wheeling, W.Va., and Williamstown, W.Va.

“I’m convinced that this problem is not going to be solved by our attorneys general, not by our governors, not by our sheriffs or prosecutors, it’s going to be solved, ultimately, by you, each individual in the community,” he told the crowd.

“In Ohio, we lose eight to 10 people a day to overdoses,” DeWine said. “This is a problem that started in most cases with pain meds, then, some people moved to heroin, and now, tragically, they have moved to fentanyl and carfentanil. It has impacted every aspect of our communities.”

Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic narcotic that is estimated to be 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Carfentanil, a tranquilizer used to sedate elephants, is up to 100 times more potent than fentanyl.

Kentucky Attorney General Beshear said his state, too, is suffering, and he has been working to find solutions.

“Today we mark the start of a new collaboration aimed at combating the heroin epidemic plaguing the tri-state region,” he said. “The opioid scourge is not partisan and it is not confined to any state border. I am proud to partner with Attorneys General DeWine and Morrisey to share our resources and ideas to better protect our families and communities from this devastating epidemic.”

West Virginia Attorney General Morrisey talked about some of the efforts his office has made, including a campaign to make high school athletes aware of the dangers of prescription pain medication.

He also read a letter from the third-grade winner of the “Kids Kick Opioids” contest sponsored by his office. It said, “I miss my daddy. I want to hug and kiss him every day. It is very sad when kids don't have their daddy to play with now. I still cry when I think about my daddy.” She enclosed a photo of her and her father taken one week before he died from a drug overdose.