White House notices Central Indiana city’s response to opioid crisis

Frankfort, Indiana – Some officials at the White House have expressed interest in the strategy used by a small Indiana municipality to combat the opioid issue.

The Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. Rahul Gupta, paid a visit to the City of Frankfort on Friday and praised the city’s “all hands on deck” strategy.

“What I see here in the City of Frankfort is how a community comes together to solve this problem,” Dr. Gupta said.

The director believes that what is being done in Frankfort could serve as a model for other Indiana towns. The city’s policy calls for the backing of neighborhood businesses, law enforcement, and recovery centers in addition to that of city officials.

“It’s definitely gratifying to have recognition for our community like that because we do so much work,” Greg George, Operations Director for ONE80 Recovery Resources, said.

Others claimed the region might serve as a model for Indiana as a whole.

“We have been talking about Clinton County and Frankfort as a model for the state for quite a while now,” Douglas Huntsinger, Executive Director of Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement, said.

According to Huntsinger, a decline in opioid overdose mortality is partly attributable to various cities adopting a similar strategy.

“We are looking at preliminary numbers from the CDC showing a 20% reduction in 2022,” Huntsinger said.

Huntsinger claims that the state’s opioid settlement provided funds to 30 Indiana communities, including Frankfort, and that this financing is making a more inclusive approach possible.

“There’s about $300M that’s going across the United States, so $18M of that coming to our state is really important,” David Fry, Executive Director of ONE80 Recovery Resources, said.

According to Huntsinger, the state has also utilized some opioid settlement cash to give money to treatment institutions trying to increase the number of beds available.

“We’ll be making an announcement about those awardees, later probably this month,” Huntsinger said.