Attorney General Racine Applauds Senate Passage of Bill Aimed at Fighting Heroin and Prescription Painkiller Abuse

Racine Urges Passage of House Companion Bill to Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act

WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today applauded the Senate’s passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016, a bill that would provide states with the necessary tools to more effectively confront the growing challenge of heroin and opioid abuse and addiction. Attorney General Racine echoed his previous support of this bill, along with 37 other state attorneys general, and urged passage of the House companion bill.

“The growing epidemic of heroin and opioid abuse is destroying families across the country, including right here in the District, and we need tools that can better help us prevent addiction, overdose and death,” said Attorney General Racine. “Today, the Senate took an important step to equip local jurisdictions with the resources to confront this epidemic; it’s critical that the House do the same.”

More than 100 Americans die as a result of overdoses every day – more than half of them caused by prescription drugs or heroin. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015 will:

  • Expand prevention and educational efforts – particularly aimed at teens, parents and other caretakers, and aging populations – to prevent the abuse of opioids and heroin and to promote treatment and recovery;
  • Expand the availability of Naloxone, a drug used to counteract heroin and opioid overdoses, to law enforcement agencies and other first responders to help save lives;
  • Expand resources to identify and treat incarcerated individuals suffering from addiction disorders promptly by collaborating with criminal justice stakeholders and by providing evidence-based treatment;
  • Expand disposal sites for unwanted prescription medications to keep them out of the hands of children and adolescents;
  • Launch an evidence-based treatment and intervention program for opioids and heroin throughout the country; and
  • Strengthen prescription-drug-monitoring programs to help states monitor and track prescription drug diversion and to help at-risk individuals access services.

A copy of the letter supporting the legislation that Attorney General Racine and his colleagues sent to the Senate and House Committees on the Judiciary last year is attached. 

Attachments