Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, seated at right, convened the first statewide opioid taskforce on Wednesday at Atlanta Technical College
“We need to do a better job of connecting across all areas of expertise to specify what each other is doing and, together, leverage the strengths we each have to collectively combat this crisis.” With those words, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr yesterday convened the Statewide Opioid Task Force at Atlanta Technical College to respond to the drug plague which has become a national emergency.
“The Office of the Attorney General is in a unique position to provide this platform,” Carr says, “and that is why we are creating a Statewide Opioid Task Force, providing an infrastructure of communication between the public, private and non-profit sectors, local, state and federal officials and other stakeholders to ensure we have strong and effective tools to combat this issue that is plaguing our state and nation. We believe this platform will help us strengthen our state’s response and save lives, and we are grateful to the many partners across Georgia,”
The list of speakers was lengthy, as was the information imparted over a two-hour period. Represented were organizations and agencies ranging from the state Department of Public Health, the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency, the Department of Community Health, the Medical Association of Georgia and the Georgia Pharmacy Board to various law enforcement agencies and lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly.
The state legislators indicated they are developing an agenda to deal with the crisis for the 2018 legislative session, with Rep. Terry Rogers calling it the “elephant in the room” that must be addressed because the opioid overdose scourge “cuts across all demographic groups.”
Carr said that while “focusing on increased communication between participants, we also will be doing our very best to keep Georgians involved in and informed about our conversations.” He says a second meeting will be scheduled in the near future and that Georgians can keep up-to-date on the Statewide Opioid Task Force’s progress by visiting law.ga.gov
