SOUTH POINT — It’s making the office of attorney general a way to help the public.

That’s how Ohio’s new attorney general Mike DeWine described his vision of his new post as he detailed his priorities to an audience of Republicans at the county’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner.

The event, held Thursday night at the new South Point High School, honored retiring County Auditor Ray “Moose” Dutey. His replacement, Commissioner Jason Stephens, was sworn in during the dinner, as was the county’s new engineer, Doug Cade.

DeWine is spending today meeting with officials in Scioto County to begin efforts to eradicate the mounting drug abuse problem in this part of the state.

“Your county has been hit very, very hard by this,” DeWine said, citing the pill mills as a major contributor to the prescription drug abuse situation.

“We are going after the doctors who are doing this,” he said. “We are going after the drug dealers … We have a problem with the state medical board. It has not been aggressive enough in pulling the licenses of these doctors.”

He said the solution would come through a grass roots effort with the state working with local law enforcement and the courts.

“We are going to turn this thing around,” he said.

Also on DeWine’s agenda is stopping President Obama’s health care program. Under DeWine’s leadership Ohio joined 25 other states that have filed lawsuits saying the program is unconstitutional.

“The federal government doesn’t have the right as a condition of living in this country that you have to buy health care,” he said. “The government doesn’t have that right. We are going to stay with the case and I hope the U.S. Supreme Court will have the wisdom to do what is right. (If not) there is absolutely no stopping of the federal government intrusion in our lives. … We have to change the direction of the state. We can do it with new ideas.”