releases: https://www.portman.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-floor-portman-highlights-senate-passage-his-combating-meth-cocaine
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.portman.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-floor-portman-highlights-senate-passage-his-combating-meth-cocaine | On Senate Floor, Portman Highlights Senate Passage of His Combating Meth & Cocaine Act | 2019-12-20 | 2019 | 2019-12 | Republican | House | OH | Rob Portman | P000449 | www.portman.senate.gov | legacy | On Senate Floor, Portman Highlights Senate Passage of His Combating Meth & Cocaine Act December 19, 2019 | Press Releases WASHINGTON, DC Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) delivered remarks on the Senate floor praising passage of the final FY 2020 funding bill, which includes his Combating Meth & Cocaine Act. This legislation will give state and local governments greater flexibility with federal opioid funding to address the resurgence of meth and cocaine affecting our communities. Specifically, the bill expands the use of the State Opioid Response Grant funding to address rising use and overdose deaths attributed to the abuse of methamphetamine and cocaine.Progress is being made in Ohio and nationwide in reducing overdose death rates due in part to some of his legislative priorities like his Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act (CARA), the 21st Century CURES Act, and the STOP Act, but overdose death rates for certain drugs like fentanyl, psychostimulants like methamphetamine, and cocaine have all continued to rise. The legislation now heads to the president's desk for his signature. Transcript of his remarks can be found below and a video can be found here. I'd also liketo talk for a moment about the legislation we just passed on the appropriations side. There were two bills, one focused more on the national security defense side -- a lot of good things in there forOhio, including for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and also for the Lima Tank Plant. Also, much more importantly, it's good for our military, our men and women in uniform who are on the front lines every day sacrificing for us. We have shown through this legislation we just passed that we appreciate them, not only a pay raise but also providing them the equipment and the modern technology they need to be able to be successful. But I also notice in the agreement that just passed, the first appropriations bills, that there's really important language with regard to the drug crisis that we face in this country. I see my colleague, Sheldon Whitehouse is on the floor. I have worked with him over the years on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. Now we have a CARA 2.0 bill we'd like to see passed. But the bottom line is that this House and Senate and the presidents -- Obama and now President Trump -- have begun to address this problem different ways over the last three or four years. And it's beginning to work. We're finally beginning to see, with regard to the opioid crisis, some success. And recall, the opioid crisis is the worst drug epidemic we've ever faced in this country. In 2017, 72,000 Americans lost their lives to overdoses. That's more than we lost in the entire Vietnam War. Last year we had a little better number. After 12 years of increases every year in overdose deaths, finally, last year, we had a slight decrease, and I think it's because of a lot of the good work that's been done here, particularly with regard to the opioid crisis. InOhio, unfortunately, we have been at the center of the storm. We've been one of the top two or three states in the country in terms of overdose deaths. Last year, in 2018, because of all the hard work we've been doing, here at the federal level, at the state level, at the local level, we actually saw a decrease. We led the country with a 22 percent decrease in overdose deaths. So that's the good news. And it's because of the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act that's bipartisan, that's working to provide more treatment and recovery services, provide better prevention, provide more Narcan to reverse the effects of overdoses. It's also because of the 21st Century CURES Act which provides funding for evidence-based programs for the states, and the states decide how it is spent. I was back home just this past week meeting with people who are getting the benefit of those programs. On Monday, I was at a home in Dayton,Ohiothat provides residential treatment for women who are addicted and pregnant and helps their children be able to overcome the neonatal abstinence syndrome when they're born to a mother who is using. It's beginning to work. I met two mothers who have turned their lives around, and I saw a beautiful baby who at five weeks old is going into the world brighter and cheerier with more opportunity because of the work we've done here to provide funding to help. But I will say we have found, having made progress on opioids, that other drugs are starting to come into our communities. This is not just an opioid problem. This is an addiction problem. And addiction is a disease that must be treated like other diseases. And although we have made progress, we can't rest on our laurels, because when I talk to those on the front lines, as I did on Monday in Dayton with law enforcement the sheriff was there for Montgomery County but also to treatment providers, those who are in the trenches, talking to those who are recovering addicts who were there, they tell me about what's happening, which is that increasingly other drugs, including psychostimulants like crystal meth and cocaine, are making a horrible comeback in those communities. Crystal meth coming in from Mexico is more pure and less expensive than ever. In fact, law enforcement tells me that on the streets of Columbus or Dayton, Cleveland, Cincinnati, that crystal meth is sometimes less expensive than marijuana and yet much more powerful and much more dangerous. So it is important that here in Congress we focus on how to respond to that. And although, again, we've got some great legislation out there with regard to opioid addiction, treatment, recovery, how to deal with this, we have not done as well with regard to these new drugs coming in. Part of the solution, of course, is to build up our security on our southern border where we've seen larger and larger quantities of crystal meth, manufactured in Mexico, being brought into our country by these cartels from super-labs, as they call them in Mexico. By the way, there were crystal meth labs over the years, but the volume was not nearly as high and the cost was much higher. Now that it's cheaper and there's higher volume, you see the meth labs in our communities closing down but for the wrong reason. It is not being made here anymore because the stuff coming from Mexico is so much more pure, more powerful, more deadly, and less expensive. So for the people already struggling with methamphetamine or cocaine addiction, it is important that they have access to treatment, too -- that they can get help. And what I've heard at the local level is, We appreciate the funding on opioids, but we want more flexibility now to be able to use this funding to combat what is in many of our communities inOhioeven a bigger problem, which is crystal meth, and sometimes cocaine.' So I'm pleased to say that in the legislation we just passed here this evening, legislation that provides appropriations to deal with this addiction issue, we have provided that flexibility. We have said, Yes, we're going to continue to provide grants to help with regard to prevention and treatment and recovery and help with regard to getting people back on their feet and helping law enforcement, but we're going to allow local communities to use this funding both for opioids and for crystal meth and other drugs.' So my hope is that what we will see is some of the same progress we made on opioids now happen with regard to some of these other substances. I've introduced a bill called the Combating Meth and Cocaine Act, introduced it in June of this year to allow this kind of flexibility. That's an authorization bill that's already been introduced and we've got good, bipartisan support for that. But we went ahead today in the appropriations bill and did it for this year. So for this fiscal year, essentially that legislation will be in effect. So for 2020, we're going to provide that flexibility. I applaud the House and Senate appropriators for doing that. And again, I'm proud of Congress for showing that we can be flexible and continue to fight a many-front war on this addiction issue. It is not just about opioids. It is about addiction. We also need to pass, though, the authorization bill, the Combating Meth and Cocaine Act. And I hope we will be able to do that after the first of the year to ensure that we can continue to address these public health threats and we can continue to provide for those whose future is so dim because of the addiction and instead that they be able toachieve their God-given purpose in life. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |