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DEA Targets Opioid Abuse With New Appalachian Field Office

by Associated Press

   LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY --

   The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is targeting opioid abuse in
   Appalachia by establishing a new field office in Kentucky to oversee a
   region ravaged by overdose deaths.

   Acting DEA Administrator Robert Patterson says the new Louisville field
   office will have a special agent in charge to oversee investigations in
   Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. The agency says the new office
   will enhance efforts in the Appalachian mountain region and streamline
   drug trafficking investigations under a single office. D. Christopher
   Evans, an associate agent in charge in the DEA's Detroit field office,
   will lead the new Louisville office.

   Overdose deaths were 65 percent higher among residents in Appalachia
   than in the rest of the country in 2015, a recent Appalachian Regional
   Commission study found.