(The Center Square) – The state of Ohio gave another $3 million to law enforcement agencies across the state to continue efforts to fight illegal drug activities.
The money from the state’s General Fund budget will go to 44 local law enforcement groups to help drug task forces that impact 42 counties combat drug trafficking, pharmaceutical diversion and other organized criminal activity associated with illegal drugs.
“No one knows better than local law enforcement the effects that drugs have on their own communities,” Gov. Mike DeWine said. “This funding will support our local authorities as they work to take drugs off the streets.”
The two largest grants, both of more than $137,000, went to the Cleveland and Mansfield police departments.
The groups can use the money to investigate drug trafficking organizations and disrupt the drug supply through intelligence gathering, information sharing and multi-agency coordination. The grants can also support local work to help drug overdose victims and families through education, support and treatment options.
The grants come more than two months after the state launched new data dashboards to track and report data on overdose deaths and drug-related issues across the state.
As previously reported by The Center Square, the dashboard comes from the National Institute of Health and Ohio State University’s HEALing Communities Study, which was the largest implementation study conducted in addiction research aimed at investigating how tools for preventing and treating opioid misuse, opioid use disorder and opioid overdose are most effective at the local level.
A total of 5,017 people in Ohio died from unintentional drug overdoses in 2020, which was a 25% increase over the previous year, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
This article First appeared in the center square