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Madison County Officials Hope Opioid Emergency Declaration Will Provide Resources

Ohio Valley reSource

The Trump administration’s announcement Thursday that the opioid crisis is a national public health emergency was not news to first responders in Madison County.

Sheriff Mike Coyle has been in law enforcement four decades and has witnessed drug problems from day one.

He is looking forward to help from the federal government.

Coyle says there’s probably no better time than now for our society to recognize that we have a problem, not just in Madison County but across the world.

“We do need help from the federal government. We need more legislation to be passed and something to be done with drug traffickers. Drug dealers, that’s the biggest problem.”

Sheriff Coyle says his department works with a supportive fiscal court.  Madison County is using a street crimes unit, a tip line and a high intensity drug trafficking task force.

“We fight this thing just like fighting fire every day. We look forward to anything or anybody that. But we’re all in. We do it every day.”

To date this year, Madison County has had at least 26 overdose deaths.

The White House has not yet released details of the emergency plan or how the programs to fight the drug epidemic will be funded. 

Cheri is a broadcast producer, anchor, reporter, announcer and talk show host with over 25 years of experience. For three years, she was the local host of Morning Edition on WMUB-FM at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Cheri produced and hosted local talk shows and news stories for the station for nine years. Prior to that, she produced and co-hosted a local talk show on WVXU, Cincinnati for nearly 15 years. Cheri has won numerous awards from the Public Radio News Directors Association, the Ohio and Kentucky Associated Press, and both the Cincinnati and Ohio chapters of the Society for Professional Journalists.
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