“We have a heroin and prescription drug crisis in this country and we should be supporting efforts to reverse this tide, not proposing drastic cuts to those who serve on the front lines of this epidemic,” said Portman.
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According to the White House budget proposal, the office would receive $24 million in fiscal year 2018.
It received $388 million in federal funding for fiscal year 2017.
The cuts would eliminate funding for the high intensity drug trafficking and drug-free communities support programs, which received $254 million and $100 million, respectively in FY 2017.
“I’ve known and worked with our drug czars for more than 20 years and this agency is critical to our efforts to combat drug abuse in general, and this opioid epidemic, in particular,” said Portman. “This office supports the Drug Free Communities Act, legislation I authored in 1997 which has provided more than $1 billion to community drug coalitions around the country over the last 20 years, as well as the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, which has helped states like Ohio that are ground zero for this problem.”
Portman has been a legislative champion on combatting the opioid epidemic in Ohio and the country.
He authored the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) that passed nearly unanimously (two senators and five congressmen voted ‘no’) and was signed into law by President Barack Obama in July 2016.
The Cincinnati senator also introduced the Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention Act, which is designed to help stop synthetic drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil from being shipped through our borders, and the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, which would require the use of prescription drug monitoring programs in all states that received certain federal funding to combat opioid abuse.
Retherford lands 2 legislative wins
This week the Ohio House passed the budget bill, which includes a couple of initiatives Rep. Wes Retherford has been pushing for several years.
Two amendments in House Bill 49 include provisions of the Elder Justice Act and Health Care Compact bills.
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The Elder Justice Act makes a number of changes to the state law to protect the state’s elderly population against neglect or exploitation. He said the this bill brings on “desperately needed reform to elder abuse laws.”
“By bringing in more reporters and adding updates to financial crimes, we can protect Ohio’s senior citizens and their life savings,” Retherford said.
The Health Care Compact, which Retherford has previously called the replacement part to Republican’s “repeal and replace” efforts of the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. The bill is designed to transfer the responsibility of regulating health care from the federal government to the member states in the compact.
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“For years, the Affordable Care Act has hampered Ohio’s businesses and middle class,” he said. “By entering the Health Care Compact, we are finally asserting our constitutional right to self-government and standing up for Ohio’s citizens.”
Other parts of the House-passed bill includes allocating $170.6 million to combat the state’s opioid epidemic, providing additional resources to schools, reducing the number of tax brackets and eliminating tax changes and expanding options for local communities to divert some low-level offenders from the crowded state prison system.
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