Kentucky AG gets green light to spend millions in ‘blood money’ on opioids for youth prevention

Sept. 28 — The Kentucky Opioid Advisory Commission voted to spend $3.6 million over the next two years for a three-pronged drug prevention campaign aimed at youth, proposed by Attorney General Russell Coleman earlier this month.

The funds the commission is charged with distributing, which come from legal settlements with pharmaceutical companies, “represent the shared pain of families across this Commonwealth,” Coleman said Sept. 10.

He asked the commission for permission to spend some of that “blood money” to reach Kentucky youth ages 13 to 26. No member voted against his request and no one abstained. The money will be divided into $1.8 million each year.

Coleman’s campaign, modeled after a Florida initiative, has three parts. The first is an advertising campaign called Better Without It, which will run on social media, college campuses and more. Coleman cited the famous “Click It or Ticket” campaign as an example of how “these types of educational campaigns can work.”

The ads, which will also be run by influencers, will be tailored to Kentucky, using photographers and creators who Coleman says can make the material “look, sound, feel and smell like the Commonwealth “.

The second part of the campaign is to “weave together” Kentucky’s “patchwork” of school-based prevention programs so that children have access to more consistent resources. Finally, Coleman said, the campaign will “elevate and draw attention to the ongoing work of this commission.”

Overdose deaths in Kentucky declined in 2023 for the second year in a row, according to this year’s Drug Overdose Deaths Report. In 2022, 2,135 Kentuckians died from overdoses, marking the first decline since 2018. Ninety percent of these deaths were from opioids and fentanyl.

By 2023, the number of fatal overdoses had fallen to 1,984. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, accounted for 1,570 of them, or about 79% of deaths in 2023. The 35 to 44 age group years was the most exposed, according to the report. Methamphetamine accounted for 55% of overdose deaths in 2023.

From 2021 to 2023, approximately 460 Kentuckians under the age of 34 died from overdoses, according to this report.

“We know that young people are more likely to be influenced by their peers than by someone who looks like me,” Coleman said. “Honest and productive conversations about the dangers of substance abuse among students can be a force multiplier.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, teens and early 20s and those with a family history of addiction are at greatest risk for opioid use disorder.

“I ask you to work with us zealously so that we can reach young people where they are and prevent them from having their first – and in this environment, too often their last – experiment… with this poison,” he said. Coleman said. members of the commissions.

Coleman said, “A single fentanyl pill can — and is — killing our neighbors. … We live in a time where there is no margin for error. or the notion of safe experimentation with narcotics.

The commission was created by the state legislature in 2021 and has nine voting members and two non-voting members.

Kentucky receives payouts for $900 million in settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors. So far, it has awarded 110 grants worth more than $55 million for treatment, prevention and recovery efforts.

The commission will then meet on October 8.