FLORENCE, KY -- U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell held a “heroin listening session” in northern Kentucky today and discussed the challenges and opportunities facing prevention, prosecution and treatment/recovery efforts. Senator McConnell invited northern Kentucky community leaders, experts in the areas of law enforcement, workforce development, public health and medicine, and those affected by heroin addiction to participate. The following are Senator McConnell’s remarks as prepared for delivery:

“Hello and welcome to this important listening session to address the scourge of heroin abuse in Kentucky. I want to thank all of our attendees for coming today to speak on the rise of heroin use that is destroying too many communities, families, and lives here in the Bluegrass State.

“It’s appropriate that we’re holding this listening session here in Florence, because unfortunately, as you know, this wonderful and vibrant community of northern Kentucky is the epicenter of a serious heroin epidemic in the Commonwealth. I’m here to hear from you how to fix it.

“Today’s panelists include informed Kentuckians from the medical, public health, and law-enforcement fields, the business community, and the personal account of an individual in recovery. They will share with us their first-hand experiences in dealing with heroin abuse and the lives that it affects.

“I want to thank the executive director of the Northern Kentucky Area Development District, Lisa Cooper, as well as board chairman George Zubaty and board vice chairs Shorty Tomlinson and Lewis Diaz, for providing this facility to host our event today. The way the District brings together stakeholders from across the region, public and private, and at different levels of government, is a model for the type of robust community engagement we must use to solve Kentucky’s heroin problem.

“I also want to thank my friend Frank Rapier, executive director of the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, for being here today. Frank has earned the right to be called one of Kentucky’s hardest-working public servants after nearly five decades in law enforcement, and he is respected across the Commonwealth and the country for all the hard work he has done with HIDTA to combat illegal drug trafficking and drug abuse.

“I want to thank Tommy Loving, the executive director of the Kentucky Narcotic Officers Association, for joining us today. KNOA supports training and intelligence sharing for drug-enforcement officers across the Commonwealth, and I appreciate Tommy’s support and willingness to make the trip here from Bowling Green.

“And I’m glad my friend Sheriff Berl Purdue is here today. Sheriff Purdue is the top law-enforcement officer for Clark County and also the president of the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police.

“I know I don’t have to persuade anyone here how devastating heroin abuse and addiction is to our Commonwealth. According to the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, the state police crime lab jumped up from processing 451 samples of heroin in 2011, to 2,382 in just the first nine months of 2013. That’s an increase of over 400 percent, in just two years—repeat, 400 percent.

“And together, in 2011, Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties accounted for nearly 60 percent of Kentucky’s heroin prosecutions, even though the counties contain less than 10 percent of the state’s population. In one year, northern Kentucky heroin overdose deaths doubled—from 33 in 2011 to 66 in 2012. That is the kind of statistic that cannot be tolerated.

“Northern Kentucky has been hardest hit partially because of its proximity to Cincinnati, a center for heroin trafficking. As you in this room are well aware, heroin is largely produced overseas and smuggled into the country for sale on the black market. This international and interstate smuggling aspect makes the problem harder for state and local law enforcement, whose jurisdiction often ends at the Commonwealth’s borders.

“Drugs like heroin are no respecter of borders, which is why I look forward to hearing about multi-agency federal, state, and local law-enforcement efforts such as those used by the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force and the Appalachia HIDTA.

“So while the growth in heroin addiction is partly a result of our own progress in fighting the illegal sale of prescription narcotics, I am also reassured that in concert we can successfully take on this challenge, just as we continue to partner together to fight prescription pain pill abuse.

“As many of you may know, Frank Rapier has adopted an unofficial motto for the Appalachia HIDTA that reads, “There’s no limit to what we can accomplish if we don’t worry about who gets the credit.” That’s an approach that we all must live by in order to fight this epidemic.

“In an era when the federal government faces unprecedented levels of debt, we must acknowledge that the federal government has finite resources. That being said, however, there are positive steps we can and must take. My goal today is to listen to you, hear your experiences, and take your concerns back to Washington to formulate the right policy that will leverage federal resources for maximum return.

“I’m gratified that I was able to get results for Kentucky’s prescription pill epidemic using this same approach. I worked with local and state medical authorities, treatment centers, and law-enforcement offices.

“I brought White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske to Kentucky to witness firsthand the scope of the problem. I fought for the expansion of the Appalachia HIDTA to Jefferson County and then Hardin County in western Kentucky.

“We secured federal grants for many community prevention and treatment efforts. And we successfully convinced the FDA to prohibit a generic version of one long-release opiate from coming to market without abuse-deterrent “non-crushable” technologies.

“Most recently, I called the FDA to task for approving a single-entity, extended-release hydrocodone product that does not include technologies to make it harder to crush and abuse. I look forward to receiving responses from the FDA to my questions about what safeguards they have in place to ensure the progress made in fighting prescription drug abuse is not lost.

“So I believe we can combat the rise of heroin abuse in Kentucky—we can, and we must. And today I’m not here to talk, I’m here to listen, and then take your stories and ideas back to Washington, and deliver them to the highest levels of the United States government, with the DEA, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I also look forward to sharing our discussions in testimony before the Senate Drug Caucus later this month.

“With that, let me turn it over to the informed guests here today on the panel.

“After each panelist has delivered their brief formal remarks, I look forward to a more informal discussion with the remainder of our time.

“First we’ll hear from Dr. Bonnie Hedrick, Ph.D. Dr. Hedrick is the coordinator of the Northern Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy. Dr. Hedrick, thank you for being here.”

Other panelists include:

2. Bill Mark: Director of Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force

3. Patrick Kenyon: A courageous young man who has overcome an addiction to heroin and is here to share his experiences. Patrick, we’re looking forward to hearing your story.

4. Kerry Harvey: U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky

5. Rob Sanders: Kenton County Commonwealth Attorney

6. Katie Stine: State Senate President Pro tempore from Campbell County; sponsor of KY Senate Bill 5, a heroin bill toughening sentences for trafficking and expanding treatment options

7. Brent Cooper: Interim President of Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and small business owner

8. Kathy Reutman: Executive Director of Student Services, Boone County Schools

9. Dr. Jeremy Engel: St. Elizabeth Physicians, Bellevue

10. Mac McArther: Executive Director, Transitions Inc.