Clinton, Conway to speak at annual Atlanta summit about drug abuse

June 14, 2016 Atlanta: Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak at an annual drug abuse summit in Atlanta Wednesday. EMILY JENKINS/ EJENKINS@AJC.COM

June 14, 2016 Atlanta: Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak at an annual drug abuse summit in Atlanta Wednesday. EMILY JENKINS/ EJENKINS@AJC.COM

Former President Bill Clinton and Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Donald Trump, are scheduled to speak in Atlanta Wednesday at an annual summit on opioid and heroin abuse.

More than 2,900 people from 48 states and Washington, D.C., and six other countries are attending the seventh annual National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

The summit comes amid a nationwide opioid overdose epidemic that claimed the lives of 42,249 people in 2016. That same year, 1,394 Georgians died from drug overdoses.

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Clinton is set to speak at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Clinton Foundation has been fighting the epidemic since 2012, partly through making naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug, more widely available and affordable. Conway is scheduled to speak Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. She is Trump’s point person for fighting the epidemic.