Heroin & Opioid Awareness Week
Prescription Opioid & Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week, September 18-24, 2016
President Obama has designated the week of September 18-24, 2016, as Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week.
“The heroin and opioid epidemic is one of the most urgent law enforcement and public health challenges facing our country,” said Attorney General Lynch. “Through National Heroin and Opioid Awareness Week, the Department of Justice seeks to raise awareness and prevent new victims from succumbing to addiction; to highlight the department’s ongoing commitment to holding accountable traffickers and others responsible for this epidemic; and to help provide treatment to those grappling with addiction. To be successful in this important endeavor, we need the help of all our federal, tribal, state and local partners. In the months ahead, we will continue working to erase this scourge from our communities and to ensure a brighter future for all Americans.”
Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness Week will reinforce the Justice Department’s three-fold approach to the opioid and heroin epidemic:
- Prevent new victims from succumbing to addition
- Strengthen enforcement efforts
- Provide treatment for addiction
During this week, the Attorney General, the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General, and various component heads, as well as U.S. Attorneys' Offices and Bureau of Prison facilities participate in over 250 events across the country as part of a state-by-state strategy in coordination with DOJ leadership.
Event Highlights
- Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates visited a Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) Community Treatment Services program at the Renaissance Medical Group in Washington, D.C. The Community Treatment Program is the final stage of BOP’s Residential Drug Abuse Program, as inmates completing their sentences transition through Residential Reentry Centers. This visit will highlight BOPs efforts to provide treatment to inmates with substance abuse issues, particularly prescription and other forms of opioids.
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- Acting Bureau of Prisons Director Thomas Kane met participants in a Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland. This event is being held in conjunction with other special programming created during the Administration’s Awareness Week within the 90 RDAPs around the country to help raise awareness about the severity of heroin and prescription opioid abuse. Activities also included presentations by mental health service providers, inmate panel discussions, and observing moments of silence during community meetings for lives lost to opioid addiction.
- Attorney General Lynch traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to hold a student town hall at a high school, meet with Heroin Education Action Team (H.E.A.T.) parents who have lost their children to heroin abuse, and then close the day at the University of Kentucky for a policy speech on how the department is addressing the issue through prevention, enforcement and treatment.
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch's Remarks at the University of Kentucky -
Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Director Bruce Ohr traveled to New Mexico to hold a meeting with the leaders of eight pueblo communities in northern New Mexico, which has the highest heroin overdose death rate in the country on a per capita basis. He also held additional outreach meetings with tribal leaders to discuss DOJ assistance to address the heroin/opioid crisis in Indian Country, Indian Health Services (IHS) physicians who provide care to New Mexico’s Native American population and medical professionals who provide pain and addiction training to IHS providers throughout the country, and tribal law enforcement officers to discuss best practices for first responders to carry naloxone.
- Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald, Principal Associate Attorney General Bill Baer, and ONDCP Director Michael Botticelli participated in a roundtable discussion on the Administration's efforts to assist our nation's veterans suffering from opioid abuse.
Blog: Opioid Abuse Awareness, Veterans Treatment Courts Focus of Roundtable Discussion
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Video: Veterans Hope, Recover, & Independence
- Attorney General Lynch delivered welcoming remarks prior to a screening of the “Chasing the Dragon” documentary, a film created jointly by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). FBI Director James Comey and DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg will also participate in a question and answer session.
Panel Discussion on Opioid Addiction
Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch's Remarks Before Screening of "Chasing the Dragon"
- Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office Director Ron Davis participated in a joint event at the Indianapolis Police Department headquarters to announce grant funding to support law enforcement efforts to combat the distribution and trafficking of heroin, methamphetamine and other harmful opioids. The COPS Office will also release a new report, “Building Successful Partnerships Between Law Enforcement and Public Health Officials to Address Opioid Abuse,” to serve as a resource to better assist law enforcement strategies to address the complex rising challenges posed by opioid overdoses.
Department of Justice Awards Nearly $12 Million to Combat Illegal Drug Manufacturing, Distribution and Trafficking