Warren County Drug Task Force receives funding on International Overdose Awareness Day
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Aug. 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day, and Governor Andy Beshear has gifted funding to those who help fight these addictions.
“While we always have more work to do, let’s take just a minute to review how far we’ve come in our fight against addiction,” he says.
On the holiday, the commonwealth is giving back to local drug task forces who help their communities daily.
“As hundreds of millions of dollars of blood money of the settlement funds from those companies are coming to the state, I want to make clear that those funds should be going directly into treatment and recovery and into law enforcement. Every one of these dollars is sacred. They are our best chance to end this addiction crisis that arose in our lifetime… during our lifetime,” Beshear says.
The Warren County Drug Task Force is receiving over $140,000 to help them fight addictions in Bowling Green.
“This year, we’re getting about a $2,000 bump up. This money goes to our general operational fund. To show you how it’s decreased over the years… in 1997, we received about $180,000 a year and that was enough with a 25% match to pretty well operate our entire budget,” Tommy Loving of the Warren County Drug Task Force says.
Not only does this money help the task force, but it also allows the city to put more money into other projects as well.
“It also relieves the city and county of having to spend as much money. As you know, with the drug epidemic we’re in with fentanyl and meth right now, It’s vital that we keep our funding going and are able to operate it at least at the current level,” Loving says.
