Miami

Acting US Attorney Holding Opioid Town Hall at Miami School

Finding a way to stop South Florida's opioid and heroin epidemic has community leaders and activists meeting Thursday afternoon in Miami.

Citing a disturbing increase in deaths tied to heroin, fentanyl and opioid abuse in Miami-Dade County, the State Attorney's Office, Drug Enforcement Administrations, law enforcement and others are meeting to address prevention and treatment.

The meeting was being held at Booker T. Washington High School from 2-5 p.m.

Their goal is to prevent further tragedies by raising awareness, focusing on enforcement priorities, highlight best practices and deploy resources for treatment.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff sessions spoke at a Summit on the heroin and opioid crisis at the University of Charleston in West Virginia Thursday.

Sessions said for drugs like heroin, cocaine and meth, there is more availability today at a lower price and higher purity in America.

"In 2015 more than 52,000 Americans died of drug overdose. this means our country is losing the equivalent of a major league baseball stadium every year to drug overdoses. Nearly two-thirds of those deaths were from opioids, that includes heroin as well as prescription drugs," Sessions said.

He argued that prevention is the long term effective way to reverse this bad trend.

The Broward Sheriff's Office will also be holding an opioid town hall Saturday. For more information, click here.

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