KENTUCKY — Kentucky’s Office of Drug Control Policy Executive Director Van Ingram joins this In Focus Kentucky segment to discuss the important initiatives his office is co-leading to address the ongoing substance use disorder crisis in our state.

"We work closely with our Department of Public Health. We work closely with our Department of Behavioral Health. We work with education and workforce, all of this ties together. And we work really hard not to work in a vacuum, that we all work together. We know for each of us, our focus is where each of our agencies dollars are going. I think it's so important when we're dealing with tax dollars, and state and federal grants. And then we're coordinating that that we're working towards the same goal and a mission and we're aware of what each other are funding and so we worked really hard to do that," adds Ingram.

Van Ingram is the Executive Director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy. Van joined ODCP in November 2004, shortly after it was created with the mission of coordinating Kentucky’s substance abuse efforts in enforcement, treatment and prevention/education.

"You know, we're seeing fentanyl involved in methamphetamine. We're seeing it mixed in with cocaine. Just this week, fentanyl was just in a drug bust in London, Kentucky. They retrieved thousands of pills that are made to look like a legitimate pharmaceutical. But when you boil it down, the active ingredient, it's just so the cartels are going to great, great links to put their fentanyl out there without letting people know that that's what you're getting," said Ingram.

You can watch the full In Focus segment in the player above.