This week President Obama is scheduled to attend a major drug abuse conference organized by a Kentucky non-profit.
The brainchild of Operation UNITE and Republican Congressman Hal Rogers, the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit added “Heroin” to the conference title this year in recognition of the growing epidemic facing many states. Close to 2,000 top researchers, law enforcement, advocates, and policymakers will converge on Atlanta for the four day event – with President Obama slated to participate in a roundtable on Tuesday.
"This appearance follows his visit last year to West Virginia and he announced a number of new public and private sector actions in West Virginia to address the epidemic, including a presidential memorandum on prescriber training and opioid use disorder treatment," says Operation UNITE CEO Nancy Hale.
She says the hope is that Obama’s participation will again turn the national spotlight on a drug problem that's now claiming lives at a rate comparable to the HIV epidemic in the 1980s, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
"Having him there, his presence, will really help focus the nation's attention on the drug epidemic. You know, when the president speaks, people listen," Hale adds.
The summit is billed as the largest national collaboration of federal, state, and local professionals dealing with drug abuse.