Senate passes Whitehouse's drug-abuse bill

PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill co-authored by U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse to provide states with better tools to treat drug addiction and reduce overdose deaths.

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015 passed by a 94-1 vote.

A similar bill introduced in 2014 that would have made as much as $80 million available to help states and local governments expand drug prevention, treatment and recovery efforts never made it to the Senate floor.

The 2015 bill, which the Rhode Island Democrat co-authored with Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, would, among other things, authorize grants to states and municipalities to develop treatment alternatives to incarceration and funding to community-based groups in areas with higher-than-average rates of opioid abuse. The bill also aims to improve access for first responders to naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. (See a summary of the bill's highlights.)

"This bill treats addiction like the illness it is," Whitehouse said in a statement. "The bill will help states give law enforcement officers, health care providers, family members and all those on the frontlines of this battle a better shot at success."

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, who voted for the bill, lamented that Republicans blocked language to provide states with millions of dollars he said is needed to ensure effective evidence-based education, treatment and recovery programs.

"Heroin and opioid abuse is a serious public health and safety problem, and we need a comprehensive, coordinated response to this epidemic. We also need real resources to improve addiction recovery outcomes and ensure people who need help have access to life saving treatments," Reed said in a statement. "I am disappointed Republicans blocked needed funding to aid in this endeavor, but we will continue working to get the job done." Last Wednesday, Reed supported an amendment to provide $600 million in immediate emergency funding to fight heroin and opioid abuse nationwide, but Republicans launched a filibuster to block the measure, and supporters fell 12 votes short of the 60 votes needed to break the procedural roadblock, Reed's office said.

In Rhode Island, the governor and state health director praised the legislation in a statement released by Whitehouse’s office.

The CARA Act of 2015 "would help ensure that tools and resources that are vital to fighting the drug overdose epidemic, such as naloxone, prevention education, and medication-assisted treatment, get to where they are needed most in Rhode Island," Rhode Island Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said.

Governor Raimondo’s overdose-prevention task force has pledged to reduce opioid overdose deaths in Rhode Island by a third within three years.

"Effective addiction treatments exist and recovery is possible," Raimondo said.