State Attorney General Josh Shapiro talks to Butler County officials during a round-table discussion about the heroin epidemic at the Butler Township Park Building on Wednesday.

BUTLER TWP — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro visited Butler Township on Wednesday, and he huddled with more than a dozen law enforcement and health officials to discuss the state's opioid addiction and overdose epidemic.

Shapiro, in comments after the meeting, noted that Butler County, which has the 14th worst rate of overdose deaths statewide, has been “hard hit” by what he called “the top public health threat in Pennsylvania.”

He said it would take a “multidisciplinary approach” to stem the tide of overdose deaths and opioid addiction, which killed thousands of Pennsylvanians last year.

To that end, Shapiro said, his office is focusing on four things: arresting and prosecuting drug dealers, destroying unused prescription drugs, working to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in the crisis, and pushing to change insurance company practices and make addiction treatment more accessible.

He also said that he believed the state was on the right track with its handling of the crisis, calling efforts to hold dealers accountable for selling deadly drugs a positive step in the fight against illegal opioids.

A full report will appear in the Butler Eagle.