Jeff Sessions In NH To Address Opioid Crisis; Protest Planned

CONCORD, NH — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will travel to New Hampshire Thursday to address the country's opioid crisis. Sessions will appear at U.S. District Court in Concord and deliver a speech.

Sessions also visited New Hampshire last year to speak about the crisis.

"There are three main ways to fight back against this problem: Prevention, criminal enforcement and treatment," Sessions said in Manchester in March 2017 at a youth summit on opioid awareness. "The most effective solution in the 1980s and early ‘90s – when, for example, we saw a significant decline in teen drug use – was the Prevention Campaign. People began to stop using drugs. Drug users were not cool. Crime fell dramatically, and addiction fell too ... We can do this again."

Last month, the Trump Administration announced a $20 million increase in funding for New Hampshire opioid recovery programs.

The liberal advocacy group Granite State Progress said it will protest Sessions appearance Thursday with a “Health Care, Not Prisons” Rally outside the courthouse.

“If Jeff Sessions really wants to help with the opioid crisis, he can start by having the Department of Justice defend the Affordable Care Act from a lawsuit by extreme GOP leaders," said Zandra Rice Hawkins, of Granite State Progress, in a statement. "Health care coverage has been the number one tool to combat substance use disorder in New Hampshire. Without a strong health care law or protections for those with pre-existing conditions, like those in recovery, more people will die and more families will be hurt."

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Photo credit: U.S. Department of Justice