Kentucky AG launches $3.6 million opioid prevention initiative

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman successfully lobbied the Kentucky Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission for $3.6 million Tuesday to launch a statewide drug abuse prevention program for youths to close "the gaping hole in our efforts to fight the drug threat."

The commission, created by the General Assembly, oversees the distribution of the Commonwealth's share of $842 million in opioid settlements reached in 2022 with opioid companies for their role fueling the deadly epidemic. Chris Evans, who retired after heading global operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, serves as the executive director.

Unlike the "Just Say No," anti-drug campaign famously launched in the 1980s, Coleman proposed a two-year program that focuses on positive youth development principles and would begin in middle schools and extend to colleges, targeting ages 13-26.

"With over one million Kentuckians under the age of 18, we are going to put every single dollar to good use," Coleman told the commission. "We know young people simply won't respond to scare tactics or stern lectures."

Instead, the attorney general said Kentucky's "Better Without It," program will "shine a light on their resilience" and will nurture the "Five Cs" of competence, confidence, connection, character and compassion.

The program will utilize a robust advertising campaign at Kentucky universities and on social media and streaming services popular with kids and teens. The campaign will include testimonials from influencers who found success by tapping into their drug-free potential.

Coleman recently teamed with Kentucky Youth Advocates to convene a youth panel to hear their ideas on drug dangers and drug prevention.

Throughout the prevention campaign, the attorney general's office also will convene a working group of youths, parents, prevention specialists and members of the abatement commission.

Kentucky officials also will partner with youth prevention and creative marketing experts who developed a similar program in Florida.

Overdose deaths have declined in Kentucky, by 9.8 percent in 2023 compared with 2022. Yet, the Commonwealth still lost 1,984 people to overdoses last year. Jefferson County also saw a decline from 518 to 496 deaths.

Fentanyl was found in 1,570 fatal overdoses last year, comprising more than 79 percent of the deaths. An amount as small as the tip of a pencil can kill and often it's hidden in fake prescription pills without the user's knowledge. Currently, seven out of every 10 pills confiscated by the DEA contains a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, according to the DEA's "One Pill Can Kill" prevention campaign data.

"We live at a time where no margin of error exists, where there is no such thing as safe experimentation," Coleman told the commission.

Kentucky has become a leader in creating "recovery ecosystems," which are community environments providing strong treatment and support services for teens, men and women recovering from substance use disorder, according to a report by the East Tennessee State University's Center for Rural Health Research.

The Commonwealth is "finally on the leading edge of this work" with the most addiction treatment center beds per capita in the nation, Coleman said. "But where we have failed is in prevention."

Now, Coleman wants to develop a statewide prevention program that will be viewed by other states as a "gold standard" to keep middle school and high school students from ever trying illegal drugs.

Beth Warren can be reached at bwarren@courier-journal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky AG to launch $3.6 million opioid prevention initiative.