Fighting Opioid Addiction

The White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy is looking at several issues related to combating drug addiction in rural areas. “Enhancing the capacity of local law enforcement. Often in a rural county’ law enforcement doesn't have adequate resources to control some of the activity that's happening now in their region. And so that's a focus for us.” That was Ann Hazlitt who's responsible for the office's rural affairs. “And then continuing to work on getting help to people who are already struggling with addiction, find the assistance they need with treatment and recovery services.”

That effort includes expanding the number of people in rural areas who are qualified to provide treatment. “Primary care, doctors that are already practicing in a rural setting. Can we equip them to be part of the solution to this challenge, making them a provider for some of the addiction services that are needed?

If you are a rural resident who is concerned about opioid addiction , finding treatment may be as easy as going online.

We also have a Web site that was launched late last year called

Find Treatment.gov. And it's meant to help guide people by zip code who might be looking for help for themselves or their family member, where to go to find existing treatment resources.

Hazlitt says her office is paying attention to workforce development.

As people come out of treatment, many are in recovery and getting them good jobs helps maintain sobriety?

Her office has released three tools to help local leaders find data and funding information, as well as learn more about the major issues.

“If they go to the opioids web page on the USDA Web site, they will see a community tool box section of the Web page, and that has each of the tools that we've discussed today.”