Nelson, Madison counties added to federal program to fight illegal drugs

NC GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL

Monday, Sept 29, 2014, 4 p.m. — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office announced today that Nelson and Madison counties have been added to the list of Kentucky counties that make up the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).

The HIDTA program provides law enforcement agencies in designated counties with coordination, equipment, technology and additional resources to combat drug production and trafficking.

McConnell made the request in August to Michael Botticelli, the acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In 2012, McConnell was successful in advocating the addition of Hardin County to the HIDTA.

“A HIDTA designation allows us to efficiently leverage federal resources along with those of state and local partners to directly benefit particularly hard-hit counties such as Nelson and Madison,” McConnell said. “I regularly hear from Kentucky law enforcement that this program provides the tools and training to make a real difference in efforts to protect Kentucky families from illegal drugs.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report that found that the number of deaths due to opioids nationwide had increased nearly fourfold from 2009 to 2011. Kentucky has the nation’s third-highest mortality rate from drug overdoses, which is largely driven by prescription painkillers.

According to the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, about 1,000 Kentuckians a year fatally overdose on drugs — more than die in vehicle accidents. Heroin deaths continue to climb, and accounted for 32 percent of the drug overdose deaths last year.
McConnell has also worked to secure federal grants for many community prevention and treatment efforts, and helped to successfully convince the FDA to take an important step toward limiting the abuse of generic crushable prescription pain pills.

In May, he testified before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control on heroin and prescription drug abuse following a listening session he held in Florence, Kentucky, earlier this year. He recently introduced the Protecting Our Infants Act in the U.S. Senate, which is designed to address maternal addiction and opiate withdrawal in newborns.

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