Human trafficking is a growing problem, and it’s happening across the state, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said.

“We have to deal with (human trafficking) and child exploitation,” Fitch told attendees at Lowndes County Republican Women luncheon Tuesday at Lion Hills Center. “This is a hard subject, but our law enforcement is out there every day working together with us.”

Since Fitch became Attorney General in 2020, she and her office’s Be The Solution and Human Trafficking Task Force have assisted law enforcement in Mississippi on more than 40 operations to identify and arrest human traffickers. Those produced 65 arrests, Fitch said, with more than 200 victims identified and rescued.

“In four years, we’ve all done an amazing job,” Fitch said. “Our goal is to eradicate human trafficking in our state. It’s in our world, it’s in our country, and it’s in the state of Mississippi.”

To assist with victims, Fitch said the state legislature has appropriated $5 million over the last two years to her office to provide food assistance, drug and psychological counseling and temporary housing for victims.

“These are primarily young women we’ve been able to rescue,” she said. “So, we get them, and they’ve got a lot of issues that we’ve got to help them with. When we go in and do a takedown, we go with our law enforcement partners. We have sexual assault nurses there. We have counselors. We have victim advocates for them.”

Fitch said part of the program also trains police officers to identify human traffickers, child predators and victims through body language, online interactions and physical appearance. So far, her office has trained about 300 officers across the state.

Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins, who also attended Tuesday’s meeting, told The Dispatch Fitch’s office has also assisted in an operation earlier this year to arrest eight traffickers and rescue 18 victims.

“They’ve absolutely been helpful,” Hawkins said of the AG’s office.

Fighting the opioid crisis

Fitch said her office is also working to address drug overdoses and deaths in Mississippi through its One Pill Can Kill Initiative, which plans to distribute 22,000 fentanyl testing and disposal kits to state colleges and local law enforcement offices across the state.

The program also includes training sessions to learn how to use Narcan nasal sprays, which block and reverse the sedating effects of opioids.

In 2022, 237 Mississippians died from fentanyl overdose, Fitch said. According to the Mississippi Prescription Monitoring Program, there were 281 opioid-related deaths in 2022.

“They have fentanyl strips so you can test that drug, then maybe you see that it’s laced and don’t take it because you don’t know how strong it is,” Fitch said. “Maybe that saves a life. We’ve also got information in there like cards you can look at to determine if something looks like a counterfeit drug, and then maybe you don’t take it.”

So far, Fitch said her team has trained 250 students at the University of Mississippi on how to use Narcan. She plans to visit Mississippi State University and the University of Southern Mississippi later this month to provide the same session.

“We’ll certainly be working with law enforcement on campus and with Student Affairs, Dean’s offices or whoever is recommended that we go through to get out the conversation and on social media for how to get the kits,” she said.

Fitch said people can call her office to order the kits and coordinate with the local sheriff’s office to pick them up.