© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ohio Attorney General Talks About Heroin and the Viral East Liverpool Photo

Heroin
WKSU

Ohio’s attorney general has been doing events around the state in the last few weeks to bring more awareness to the state’s drug opioid epidemic.

And that crisis was brought into a harsh spotlight recently, thanks to a photo of two Ohioans who nearly died from their heroin use. 

Mike DeWine says he has mixed feelings about the East Liverpool police photo that went viral, featuring a couple overdosing on heroin in a van with a 4-year-old buckled in a seat behind them.

“I think it drives home the reality of what heroin is. If you can hear this, you have a heroin problem in your community because every community in the state of Ohio has a heroin problem. Second, though, we want to be able to get people into treatment.”

DeWine says there’s a need for more drug education every year from kindergarten through high school and communities need to form grassroots efforts to battle the opioid crisis – but says no state is fighting it very well.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.