This photo was taken at the Frankfort Cemetery in 2024.​

I lost a very close friend to a drug overdose and this is a picture of me and Tyrone (my dog) going to visit him only a week or so after his burial. While my friend was an adult when he passed, he often shared that his substance use started as a teenager in high school. I share this photo because this continues to be an epidemic in our community. Over the last couple of years in Frankfort we have lost several young people to suicide, but substance use played a role in most of those deaths, if not all of them. Prevention continues to be a huge key to decreasing substance use among youth, but the need for more resources and treatment options for intervention purposes are seriously lacking in Frankfort. In 2024 a reported 1,410 Kentuckians died from overdose. 64 of those who died were between the ages of 15-24.