MONTPELIER, Vt.—U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says prescription drug abuse in America is at epidemic proportions, and that taming it will take more than law enforcement.
Accompanied by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Holder kicked off a conference on drug abuse with sobering warnings about the extent of the prescription drug abuse problem, saying the U.S. has seen a 400 percent increase from 1998 to 2008 in treatment admissions for people abusing prescription painkillers.
In addition, he said, new research shows that the number of people trying them for non-medical purposes now exceeds the number of people smoking marijuana for the first time.
"Research has shown that targeted law enforcement efforts work" to reduce abuse, he told about 300 police chiefs, prosecutors, public health officials and treatment providers at the conference at Vermont's capital. "Sound regulatory policies work. Educational outreach works. Quality prevention and drug treatment programs work. In other words, with a comprehensive, multifaceted strategy, it's within our power to help those who need us most."
Holder, the first attorney general to visit Vermont since Janet Reno in 1995, gave the keynote address to "Opiate Drug Abuse And Its Impact on Our Vermont Community" and then traveled to South Burlington to speak at a departure ceremony for a Vermont National Guard air ambulance unit deploying to Iraq.
In remarks prepared for that event, he summoned the memory of 9/11 in thanking the Vermont National Guard for heeding the call by sending fighter jets to patrol New York and Washington, D.C., after the terror attacks.
"You protected our airspace and our borders. And you became soldiers and trainers halfway across the world -- in Afghanistan and Iraq. Without delay or hesitation, you deployed to areas of maximum danger and to cities of minimum stability," Holder said.
About 1,500 members of the Vermont National Guard are currently on a one-year deployment to Afghanistan, the group's biggest one-time deployment since World War II.
