Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg has been chosen to lead a national working group of prosecutors within the National District Attorneys Association to develop policy proposals to battle the opioid crisis. Aronberg, an officer on the NDAA Board of Directors, will chair the working group, made up of prosecutors from 30 states.
The goal of the working group is to develop the first national policy document from prosecutors with proposals to address the opioid crisis aimed at federal, state and local policymakers. The final product, which is expected to be released in May, will include best practices from local jurisdictions and recommendations on prevention, criminal investigations, enforcement and rehabilitation.
“The goal is to ensure that our nation’s laws reflect the new reality of today’s unprecedented opioid epidemic that kills more than 115 Americans each day,” Aronberg said. “More Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016 than were killed in the Vietnam War.”
Aronberg noted that “opioids, in particular, present unique challenges to communities scrambling to respond to this growing scourge.”
Aronberg, who previously served as the Florida Attorney General’s “Drug Czar,” currently leads a task force in Palm Beach County that has targeted fraud and abuse in the drug treatment industry. The task force has made 42 arrests in the past year for patient brokering and has led to changes in Florida law to toughen penalties and tighten regulation over the drug rehab industry.
Aronberg added that “prosecutors and law enforcement have been on the front lines of this fight to save lives and protect our communities from the ravages of drug abuse, so it’s fitting that the NDAA has taken a leadership role on this issue.”
