DeWine discusses state’s opiate epidemic

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine was in Van Wert on Monday and drugs were on his mind — chiefly the state’s opiate epidemic.

DeWine, who spoke Monday at a luncheon hosted by the Van Wert County Republican Party at Willow Bend Country Club, talked about how Ohio’s drug problem has worsened from the late 1970s, when he was Greene County prosecutor, to today.

The attorney general said that, unlike the 1970s, the state’s drug problem is no longer centered in inner city areas.

“It’s everywhere, it’s in every county, it’s in every community,” DeWine noted, adding that residents of affluent suburbs are more likely to have a drug addiction that those in the inner city. He added that the cost of a drug habit, which can start at $15 a day, but then increase to as much as $1,500 a day or more, drives most of the other crime Ohio courts deal with.

“So much of the crime we see is a direct result of people being either high when they commit the crime or having to feel that they have to feed that habit every single day, and breaking into someone’s house,” the Ohio attorney general explained.

DeWine also addressed the death toll from heroin and opiate use, especially now that even more powerful drugs, such as fentanyl and carfentanil, a large-animal sedative, are being used to cut heroin.

“Based on last year’s statistics, we’re losing about eight people a day statewide who die of an overdose of drugs,” said DeWine. “Now imagine if we had a terrorist attack and it killed eight people a day in the state of Ohio. What would we be doing? We’d be up in arms.”

DeWine, who said he has read journalist Sam Quinone’s book, Heartland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, said he agreed with Quinone’s assessment that today’s heroin epidemic stems from overprescribing of pain medications over the last couple of decades, especially by “pill mills” in Ohio and elsewhere (see related story in News Page archives).

Like Quinones, the attorney general said the business model used by Mexican drug dealers makes it difficult for law enforcement to curtail the flow of drugs. It’s a situation that calls for an entire community’s resources, he added.

“We’re not going to arrest our way out of this problem,” DeWine said, noting that his special Heroin Unit provides resources to local law enforcement agencies, while drug courts and community treatment options are also important in dealing with the opiate epidemic, with prevention and education crucial to any solution. That includes drug education in Ohio schools, from kindergarten through high school.

In addition to talking about the drug problem, DeWine also addressed the upcoming presidential election, noting that he was, albeit, reluctantly voting for Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump was not my pick; I was a John Kasich delegate, but I’m voting for Donald Trump,” DeWine told the more than 150 attending the luncheon. The issue, for DeWine, is judicial.

Noting that a two-term president will likely appoint up to four U.S. Supreme Court justices, as well as a large portion of other federal judges, DeWine said he feels Trump would appoint more conservative judges than Hillary Clinton would.

“Not only are we electing a president,” the attorney general noted, “we’re electing a Supreme Court.”