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Opioid Crisis Hitting Kids Hard, And ODOT Plans For A Record-Setting Year Ahead

2017 is rapidly coming to a close, and there are questions about the state’s new medical marijuana program that’s supposed to be fully operational in September of 2018. Statehouse correpondent Jo Ingles reports.

As this show chronicled in November, the opioid epidemic is ravaging Ohio in many ways. Overdoses involving prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl mixed with other drugs are killing nearly 11 people a day. The state says it’s spending almost a billion dollars to fight it. Jails and hospitals are filling up with people needing help. And the state’s foster care and children services’ system is straining under the pressure, and its advocates say it will explode in the next few years if something doesn’t change.  Angela Sausser is with the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

It’s said in Ohio – and many other places – that there are only two seasons – winter and construction. Since we’re firmly in winter, there’s time to look into what construction drivers will see on roads in 2018. I talked about that and more with the director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, Jerry Wray.