Portman discusses opioid issues during clinic stop
YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Sen. Rob Portman visited the Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic today to discuss the heroin and prescription drug epidemic, and what can be done to fight it.
Portman’s Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act [CARA] authorizes $181 million annually for programs aimed at strengthening prevention, treatment and recovery services.
Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, also introduced two bills to help prevent drug abuse.
One proposal requires parcels sent through the U.S. Postal Service from overseas to collect information in digital form as drug traffickers, he said, are mailing fentanyl and other drugs through the mail.
Another proposal “requires every pharmacy and doctor to use what’s called the prescription drug monitoring system,” he said. It requires drug dispensers to report to that system each opioid prescription they dispense to patients within 24 hours, requires practitioners to consult the system before prescribing opioids to patients and requires states to notify practitioners when the system shows that a patient has a pattern of opioid misuse.
For the complete story, read Saturday’s Vindicator.