IU President Michael McRobbie will join Gov. Eric Holcomb and IU Health President and CEO Dennis Murphy on Tuesday morning at the Indiana Statehouse to announce a collaborative response to the state's opioid crisis, according to a University release.
Indiana is one of four states where the fatal drug overdose rate has quadrupled since 1999. In addition to high death rates and increased instances of HIV diagnoses, the opioid crisis has resulted in an increase in pharmacy robberies and children being removed from homes of parents who abuse drugs, according to a Sept. 2016 report on the crisis from the IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI.
According to the report, Indiana led the nation with 367 pharmacy robberies between Jan. 2013 and May 2016. The number of children removed from their homes due to a parent abusing drugs in Indiana increased 22 percent in the fiscal year 2016 from the previous year.
The plan will be the third of the IU Grand Challenges Program, a $300 million initiative by the University to solve global and local issues using cross-sector collaboration and partnerships.
Jesse Naranjo
