Displaying items by tag: Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act

After three years of working with law enforcement, drug experts, and families impacted by drug use, Ohio U.S. Senator Rob Portman's Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act has been signed into law by President Obama.

CARA, designed to pay for education, treatment and recovery programs to prevent drug abuse, passed the Senate by a 92-2 vote following a 407-5 vote in the House.

"This is a historic moment in the fight against addiction", Senator Portman said in a press release. "It's a moment when we came together as a country - Democrats and Republicans alike - behind a common sense idea: finally treating addiction like the disease that it is. And with the epidemic of opiate addiction taking an American's life every 12 minutes, this may be the most urgent issue that we face".

President Obama signed the bill Friday, which authorizes $181 million in new spending.

The Comprehensive Addition and Recovery Act - or "CARA" - has had a long journey through Congress that will end soon.

After the House passed a conference committee report by a 407 to 5 vote, the Senate is expected to take a vote Wednesday.

Ohio U.S. Senator Rob Portman sponsored the original Senate bill...and says the new law is needed more than ever.

"Sadly over the past several weeks, we have seen examples in Cleveland, and in Akron and in Dayton and other communities," Sen. Portman told reporters in a conference call Tuesday, "of record levels of overdoses and overdose deaths."

He says there are about 200,000 Ohioans who are addicted, and about 2,000 Ohioans who die every year from overdoses.

Sen. Portman says the bill is better for additions made by the House.

He says he hopes President Obama will quickly sign it when it gets to his desk.

The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed the conference report on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act...the same week that well over a dozen people overdosed on heroin in Akron.

CARA is a multi-pronged effort to fight opioid abuse. The latest step was passed 407 to 5 by the House.

Local representative Tim Ryan sponsored CARA in the House....he says the next step is putting more needed money into resources.

"We have to get money behind these programs to make sure that the Attorney General, and the other programs that are involved here for public health have the resources they need that will hit the ground in Summit County and Northeast Ohio," Rep. Ryan tells WAKR.net, "to help stem the tide of this unbelievably heartbreaking epidemic we're dealing with."

Ryan says that much more money is needed than the $181 million written into the bill, even if it does sound like a lottery jackpot.

"In every community, it's facing a dramatic challenge here, and we've got to get more than some problems that are getting thrown around for this," Ryan says, "and I'm not happy about that number at all, I wouldn't brag about that number at all, we've got a lot of work to do."

CARA has one more step on Capitol Hill - the conference report now must be passed by the Senate. Senator Rob Portman has sponsored the effort there.

Senator Rob Portman says the "Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act" - designed to pay for education, treatment and recovery programs to try to stop drug abuse - has a lot of bipartisan support.

But as the bill starts its journey in the Senate, Portman realizes getting even well-supported legislation through Congress is not easy...especially in a busy political year.

"Even though it's legislation that my colleagues seem to support, this is Congress, and it's really hard to get stuff done around here," Portman tells Ohio reporters in a conference call. "So, I am hopeful that we'll have enough momentum to push through the politics of the year, and actually get something done here."

Sen. Portman tells reporters on a conference call that the heroin epidemic is a "real crisis" in Ohio, and believes the legislation will help battle that problem.

He says there is bipartisan support in the House as well.

Monday, the Senate voted 89 to 0 to begin consideration of the bill.