Kentucky's annual opioid symposium kicked off today.

It brings together community organizers, medical professionals and law enforcement from across the state.

It sponsored by the State Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission, which awards settlement money from cases against prescription drug makers and pharmacies.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman spoke at today's opening event.

You can't say it's Louisville's problem or it's Lexington's problem.

It's a city problem.

You can't say that's happened in the mountains or way down in the purchase.

You can't even say it's that family, right?

If they had done something different, it's that family.

Or maybe it's that part of town because it's not because it's us.

And so I stand here grateful that this room is filled with people who deeply care about trying to mitigate this harm.

Some of you are here to show off some of the creative ways that you're mitigating in your communities.

Some of y'all are here to to garner ideas or to work well in your county.

That might be working well.

And the other end of the state, some of you are here just to interact and meet some of those leaders in this space.

You're here for all different reasons, all of them for good.

All of them to try to save lives.

Earlier this year, Coleman's office announced a social media campaign called Better Without It.

The program has enlisted college athletes to tell their stories of determination and the benefits of a life free from addiction.

Leaders of the Florida based program also conducted youth focus groups in Kentucky, with help from the Kentucky Youth Advocates.

Our number one goal is to engage Kentucky youth directly and digitally on the platforms that are most familiar to them.

We want to demonstrate positive choices via influencer storytelling, and we want to build relationships with programs that reinforce these positive prevention principles.

We we conducted a survey for mind body, relationships, future and the fifth survey was about substances.

What we found through that is our key takeaway.

Number one was stress is the universal challenge and trust is the universal barrier.

Yet the top stressors for Kentucky youth, according to both the surveys and focus groups.

So it's very much overlapped.

Family relationships, mostly parents financial situations at home of which they are very, very conscious.

School academics, of course, and decisions about the future.

This year, the Opioid Abatement Commission awarded nearly $20 million to 75 organizations since the commission was created in 2021.

It has doled out $85 million to local programs.