Helping those in recovery
GRAYSON 'I'm here to thank you for giving a damn,' Russell Coleman, Kentucky Attorney General, told the crowd at Bridges Out of Addiction on Tuesday. 'My grandmother would not like me talking like that, but I'm here to thank you for giving a damn.'
Coleman was the afternoon keynote speaker for the sixth annual Bridges Out of Addiction at the Ashland Community & Technical College Technology Drive Campus.
'The only way we can make headway is a three-legged stool. One of those legs is prevention, one of those legs is treatment, one of those legs is enforcement,' Coleman said.
Regarding the enforcement leg, Coleman said his office has made a priority of going after drug dealers 'who bring these poisons into our community.'
He brought up the improvements in treatment in the state in the last five years.
'Five years ago, you had to get on waiting list,' Coleman said.
He said the state now has more treatment beds per capita than any other state.
'As the AG, my job is to make sure those beds are efficient,' he said, adding his office works to ensure the treatment facilities in the state operate to help those needing treatment and not simply as a money-making business.
'We have failed on the prevention front,' Coleman said. 'It's the hardest leg to measure. How do you measure a negative? You measure it by saved lives.'
Coleman said the state introduced a 'Better Off Without It' campaign last year.
'How do we get to where the kids are?' Coleman said. 'We're leveraging the technology that is being used for ill, leveraging it for good.'
The program is utilizing social media to reach children.
'This might be the most important thing I do,' Coleman said.
He told of an example of the ad campaign that will use college athletes in hopes of stepping up prevention.
'You want to wear this jersey, you're better off without it,' Coleman said one of the ads will say. 'Most of you in this room will never see these ads.'
He added that means the ads are reaching their targeted audiences. He told of a picture on his phone of a rising college student who took a single pill and was found dead in his bed in the morning.
'We know the drug threat is proving it has zero margin of error,' Coleman said.
'We are going to partner with those who are appropriate to reach our youth,' Coleman said. 'I welcome partnerships, I'm here to listen, I'm here to learn.'
That partnership approach was a key aspect of those in attendance.
Outside of the room, the hallways were lined with tables showcasing different opportunities and businesses that can provide help for those in recovery and those in addiction, and even help with prevention.
Paul Patrick, court liaison with Southern Hope Recovery in Portsmouth, stressed the importance of working together to meet the needs of those battling addiction.
'It's great to meet and make connections with all of these resources,' Patrick said. 'If we feel we can't meet a clients' needs, we know who can.'
Another group looking to build roads in the region was Healing Appalachia.
The group puts on a concert where the proceeds go to help those in recovery.
'We buy vans for recovery houses, we pay for the roofs on the houses,' Cliff Masey, volunteer coordinator with the concert, said.
The concert recently announced it is moving from Lewisburg, West Virginia, to Boyd County for its annual concert in September.
While a lineup has not been announced, Tyler Childers is a perennial headliner who uses the concert to bring other artists to raise not only funds, but also awareness of the opioid crisis in Appalachia.
'It takes a lot of effort to put on the concert,' Masey said.
While those on stage bring in the concert goers, Masey said the concert is put on by those in recovery.
'Volunteers will put up the fences, build the stage; from the trash pickup all the way up, it will be people in recovery,' Masey said.
The coordinators building connections with recovery houses in the area to fill the need for volunteers to put on the concert at the Boyd County Fairgrounds on Sept. 19 and 20.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Schererville woman at 108: ‘Well, I guess I took good care of myself and didn't know it'
Still sharp, still witty, still stylish, 108-year-old Edith Coleman straightens her blouse while pausing to reflect on a question she gets a lot these days. 'What's my secret?' she echoes. 'Well, I guess I took good care of myself and didn't know it.' Laughter erupts inside her Schererville townhouse where family members and friends help her get by. 'Everybody asks me my secret,' the former teacher and longtime public servant says. 'Oh, I could tell you but I'd have to charge you.' In all seriousness, she adds, 'I don't think I'm that extraordinary.' According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are some 101,000 Americans age 100 or over today. That number is expected to reach 422,000 by 2054. But family members say, in addition to her longevity, it has been Coleman's dedication to her community and to her fellow human beings that makes her special. Much of the Northwest Indiana community would agree. 'She's amazing,' said second-cousin Mark Patterson. 'She's done a lot in her lifetime.' Coleman was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on Feb. 13, 1917. She was 14 years old when her mother died, leaving she and her siblings orphaned. Coleman and a younger brother were sent to live with relatives in Kansas. Meanwhile, an older brother moved to Chicago. It was during a visit to Chicago that Coleman met a man from Gary who would become her husband and introduce her to a whole new world. 'We seemed to have the same characteristics. Both of us were serious. We weren't worldly. And we both loved the Lord,' she said. She and William 'Henry' Coleman were wed in 1940. Back then, Gary was a thriving steel town, offering high wages at the mills and proximity to culturally rich and bustling Chicago, she said. 'There was money in Gary,' Coleman said. 'People came from all over to live there.' Henry Coleman and his brother-in-law ran El Frio, one of the largest Black-owned beverage companies in the country. After more than two decades as a private businessman, Coleman went to work for Gary's first Black mayor, Richard Hatcher, as campaign manager and then city controller. In their early years, Coleman stayed home while the couple's two daughters, Norma and Merle, were young. Once her children were older, Coleman put her Indiana University degree to work and began teaching in the Gary school system. She taught second and third grade at Douglas Elementary School for 27 years. 'It was a wonderful school system,' she said. 'It was known all over the country.' The Gary Plan, designed by William Wirt, embraced academics and art, physical education and industrial arts in a system often referred to as 'work-study-play' or 'platoon-style' learning. 'A lot of those kids went on to be very successful,' Coleman said. A devoted member of the First Church of God in Gary, Coleman volunteered for missionary work, served as a deaconess and taught Sunday school. 'My husband and I were just ordinary people who believed in public service,' she said. They also were big travelers, visiting many countries in Europe as well as Jamaica. Though she never played a musical instrument, Coleman channeled her family's longtime love for music into more volunteer work, serving for 18 years on the board of the Northwest Indiana Symphony. To this day, she cherishes the memory of the performance at which the orchestra opened by thanking her for her service. She also supported the Gary YWCA and was active in the American Association of University Women. When the AAUW formed a gourmet cooking club, she traveled to other members' homes to sample ethnic cuisine. 'We had Polish food and Russian food. And there was a member from Sweden,' she recalled. Which was her culinary favorite? 'My own, of course,' she said, chuckling. The Colemans had been married for 47 years when he passed in 1987. Their daughters, too, are both gone. Merle, a U.S. Navy recruiter, died in 2012, and Norma, a teacher, passed in 2015. 'That's the hardest thing about living so long,' Coleman said. 'Everyone from my mother's family is dead. All my first cousins, aunts, uncles, children are dead.' Today, her second cousins help care for her. 'They are so good to me,' she said. One of those relatives, Paul Patterson, said, 'She's absolutely amazing. She has so much history. She's witnessed so much during her lifetime. And she was so involved in her community. I'm so proud of her. She's still up on current events, too. She watches the news all the time. It's very impressive.' All her life, Coleman said, she strived to be inclusive, even as the country struggled through segregation, civil rights legislation and, now, political divisiveness. 'We didn't grow up with hatred in our hearts,' she said. 'Even in Oklahoma, our community was made up of all kinds of people of different ethnicities. We tried not to judge.' Her grandmother was 8 years old when slavery ended in America. 'She talked about it. We knew the boundaries and we knew what to expect,' Coleman said. 'I went to an all-Black school. We had our own churches and restaurants,' she said. 'Of course, it hurt to know that people would look at you and see Black and think you were different or inferior to them. But we still tried to bring people together.' If she has a message for the world today, it is to abide by the golden rule. 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' she said. Embracing that mantra has served her well. Over the years, she said, she has had friends from all walks of life. 'I guess I just tried to live a healthy, Christian life,' she said. 'And I liked being busy.' Other than a bit of hearing loss and a slight limp in her walk, Coleman said, she is doing well for a centenarian-plus. She had a serious fall in January, after which she spent some time in rehab. While there, people kept asking about her age. She chuckles, saying she doesn't mind. But tell her she looks wonderful, and she smiles broadly and quips, 'You know what they say, 'Tell the truth'.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Abortions remain outlawed in Kentucky as ACLU ends lawsuit challenging ban
A courtroom challenge to two laws behind Kentucky's near-total abortion ban has been dropped, leaving the procedure outlawed under almost all circumstances. The ACLU of Kentucky announced May 30 it has dropped a lawsuit it filed last in late 2024 challenging the "trigger law" banning abortions that went into effect immediately after the Roe v. Wade decision was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a separate law outlawing abortions before determining whether a fetal heartbeat exists. In a release, the nonprofit's Kentucky branch said it would continue to push for the overturning of bans on abortion, as people "have the right to control their own bodies without government interference." "We are strategizing our next steps in this fight," Executive Director Amber Duke said. "In the meantime, our work to address the commonwealth's maternal mortality rates and lack of widespread paid leave coverage will continue as long as Kentucky remains a forced-birth state.' Attorney General Russell Coleman, who'd been named as a defendant alongside Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander, Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure Executive Director Michael Rodman and Commonwealth's Attorney Gerina Whethers, said Kentuckians "can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today, and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result." The decision to drop the lawsuit was voluntary by the ACLU, according to a Friday filing in Jefferson Circuit Court. The class action lawsuit was filed last November on behalf of Mary Poe, a pseudonym for a woman seven weeks pregnant who wanted to end her pregnancy. It argued laws banning abortions in Kentucky cause "irreparable harm" and are "an affront to the health and dignity of all Kentuckians." "The inability to access abortion in the Commonwealth forcibly imposes the health risks and physical burdens of continued pregnancy on all Kentuckians who would otherwise choose to access safe and legal abortion," the lawsuit said. The law requiring an ultrasound before ending a pregnancy was passed by the Kentucky legislature in 2017 and upheld by a federal appeals court two years later. After Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, the state immediately banned all abortions unless the mother's life is at risk. Several bills filed by Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature in the years since have sought to add exceptions, including pregnancies caused by rape or incest, but the proposals have not moved. House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, has cited the open lawsuit as a key reason why action hasn't been taken, though abortion exceptions remain "a very active topic of conversation among our caucus." "I think it's going to continue to be very difficult until that lawsuit plays its way out to replace a law that is being litigated," he said in a January interview on KET. The ACLU had argued the legislature could take action even with the lawsuit pending. Lawmakers did approve a bill in March outlining medical conditions and complications that are not considered an abortion under state law. Sponsor Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, said the bill removes "legal ambiguity" from state statutes, though opponents argued it didn't go far enough and was approved without consensus from the medical community. The GOP holds supermajorities in both chambers in Frankfort, even strengthening their hold this week when Eastern Kentucky Sen. Robin Webb changed her party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. Webb was the lone Democrat in the state Senate outside Louisville and Lexington. Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, said during the session that Republicans in the legislature "continue to have conversations over this issue." "I think (Osborne) said it best — we don't really have a clear direction where our caucus wants to go on this," Rudy said in January. Four states bordering Kentucky — Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee and West Virginia — have banned abortions. The procedure remains "mostly accessible" in Ohio and Virginia, according to Planned Parenthood, and fully accessible in Illinois. Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@ This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky abortion ban still in place as ACLU drops lawsuit over ban
Associated Press
31-05-2025
- Associated Press
Lawsuit challenging Kentucky's near-total ban on abortions is withdrawn
Attorneys for a woman who sued Kentucky seeking to restore the right to an abortion have dropped their challenge to the state's near-total ban on the procedure. The attorneys filed a motion Friday to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit, but did not give a reason for seeking to drop the case. The lawsuit had been filed last year in state court in Louisville on behalf of a woman who was seven weeks pregnant at the time and identified only by the pseudonym Mary Poe to protect her privacy. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which had represented the woman, said in a statement it would not give additional details about the dismissal. 'People have the right to control their own bodies without government interference, and we will never stop fighting to restore abortion access in Kentucky,' said Amber Duke, executive director of the ACLU of Kentucky. 'We are strategizing our next steps in this fight.' The lawsuit was challenging Kentucky's near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban, both of which were passed by Republican legislative majorities. The trigger law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. 'Kentuckians can be proud that our pro-life values won the day today and innocent lives will continue to be saved as a result,' Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, posted on X . The trigger law bans abortions except to save the life of the patient or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Republican lawmakers earlier this year inserted several new medical exceptions , though abortion-rights supporters said the exceptions don't add clarity and in fact undermine the judgment of doctors by remaining silent on other situations.
