Campaign to Provide Education to Parents in an Effort
to Keep Kids Away from Prescription Drugs and Heroin

Release of Heroin and Opioid Awareness Public Service Announcement

Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler, on Monday, March 6, 2017, announced the kick-off of “Connect 2 Disconnect,” an initiative in the District Attorney’s Office designed to provide parents with important information that they can use to steer their children away from prescription drugs and, ultimately, heroin and other dangerous narcotics.

“Connect 2 Disconnect” is designed to educate parents about how they can connect with their kids to break the connection between prescription drugs and heroin. The campaign will feature posters and other written materials that will be distributed around the county. In addition, the campaign includes a powerful public service announcement intended to drive home the severity of prescription opiate abuse and its link to later addiction to heroin and other opiates. The video can be found on the District Attorney’s Office page of the Orange County website at: http://www.orangecountygov.com/content/124/912/23685/default.aspx.

“It’s no secret that we are in the grip of an opiate epidemic, countywide, region-wide, and nationwide,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “We will continue our vigorous law enforcement efforts to take down drug dealers, both large-scale as well as street-level. But law enforcement is only part of the equation. We must educate our citizens about the dangers of abusing prescription opiates, a practice that is the most common pathway to heroin abuse and addiction. The ‘Connect 2 Disconnect’ campaign is our next step in an overall strategy to attack the opiate epidemic, an approach that we hope will save families, lives, and communities.”

For further information about the “Connect 2 Disconnect” campaign, or to request copies of the materials prepared for the campaign, please contact the District Attorney’s Special Projects and Community Affairs Bureau by email to DACommunityAffairs@OrangeCountyGov.com or by phone at (845) 615-3640.