Ohio officials stress schools' role in fighting heroin use

WORTHINGTON, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s governor and attorney general are stressing the role schools and educators can play in fighting the state’s epidemic of heroin abuse.

Gov. John Kasich calls the drug problem a poison threatening the essence of the culture. Attorney General Mike DeWine says the state cannot solve the problem by law enforcement action alone.

Kasich and DeWine promoted the state’s “Start Talking” anti-drug addiction program today during a visit to Worthington-Kilbourne High School in suburban Columbus.

The program emphasizes the importance of parents, teachers and others talking to children about staying off drugs as a way of lessening the chances that they will become addicted.

The most recent state Health Department data show that a record number of Ohioans died of heroin-related overdoses in 2012.