{"id":92552,"date":"2017-09-01T07:24:48","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T12:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=92552"},"modified":"2017-09-01T07:24:48","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T12:24:48","slug":"latta-holds-discussion-on-opioid-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/09\/01\/latta-holds-discussion-on-opioid-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Latta holds discussion on opioid crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

BOWLING GREEN — U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) discussed the opioid epidemic Thursday morning in a pair of conference calls with local law enforcement. The discussions, held with county sheriffs and police chiefs from Ohio\u2019s Fifth Congressional District, touched on the challenges that law enforcement faces in addressing this pressing crisis.<\/p>\n

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Bob Latta<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last year in Ohio,\u00a04,050 deaths were due to drug overdoses — a 33 percent increase over 2015. Law enforcement officials pointed out in Thursday\u2019s call that they are also seeing an increase in\u00a0prevalence of other illicit drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine. Latta will share the information he received on the call with the White House Opioid Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen\u00a0I\u00a0met with the White House Opioid Commission, it was clear that they know many of the solutions will come from our local communities,\u201d said Latta. \u201cToday\u2019s discussions — held on National Overdose Awareness Day\u00a0— were particularly informative to me because this problem is evolving so rapidly in our nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came away with a\u00a0number of recommendations to share with the commission and my colleagues in Congress on how we can find solutions to a problem that continues to get worse,\u201d Latta added. \u201cWith overdose deaths continuing to rise, attacking this issue from the local, state, and federal level is the only way we can reverse the trend and save countless lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many on the call shared their concern with the\u00a0prevalence of\u00a0fentanyl\u00a0—\u00a0blamed for approximately 58 percent of overdose deaths last year\u00a0— which can also present safety concerns for officers responding to calls. One sheriff even mentioned they had a case recently where marijuana had been laced with fentanyl, a deeply concerning development.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement discussed\u00a0drug drop-off boxes, drug courts, and treatment options and also expressed concern\u00a0over the rising cost of Naxolone (Narcan), which is a drug used to revive overdosed users.<\/p>\n

In addition to discussing the rising use of other drugs, law enforcement officials on the call also discussed the obstacles to deploying canine units to search for drugs, which includes cost.\u00a0Several participants said substantial cooperation between departments has helped the different agencies use canines when needed.<\/p>\n

Latta has continued to engage people in Ohio that are working to curb the use of opioids and illicit drugs, including meeting with pharmacists, educators, and students this week at Ohio Northern University\u2019s College of Pharmacy. In Washington, he has participated in a meeting of the White House Opioid\u00a0Commission and helped to push legislation like the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act and the 21st Century Cures Act, which were signed into law.<\/p>\n

Those bills both provide essential resources and policy changes to address the opioid crisis. Ohio has received $26 million already under the legislation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Submitted information BOWLING GREEN — U.S. Representative Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) discussed the opioid epidemic Thursday morning in a pair of conference calls with local law enforcement. The discussions, held with county sheriffs and police chiefs from Ohio\u2019s Fifth Congressional District, touched on the challenges that law enforcement faces in addressing this pressing crisis. Last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 13:37:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}