Des Moines, IA- The Iowa Attorney General’s office is launching a website for anyone looking for assistance with “opioid use disorder.”
Radio Iowa reports that Attorney General’s office spokesperson Lynn Hicks says that the site also provides information about opioid addiction, with the goal of reducing the stigma surrounding the disease.
“Not only is this aimed at people suffering from opioid use disorder, as well as their loved ones who want to try to get them help, but also to the public to let them know that this is an illness.”
According to a state report, 258 Iowans died of opioid overdoses last year.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the website will direct people to resources in their area, and also educate the public about the addiction.
“It’s not a status of life. It’s not a series of wrongdoings, it’s a disease, it should be treated as a disease and it’s treatable as a disease,” Miller says. “Drug treatment can work.”
The website is opioidhelp.iowa.gov.
