HARRISBURG — Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane has announced that she has joined a multi-state effort to urge federal lawmakers to pass the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015.
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act would provide states with the necessary tools to more effectively confront the growing challenge of heroin and opioid abuse and addiction.
Kane, along with attorneys general from 36 states and the District of Columbia, sent a letter to the leadership of the Committee on the Judiciary for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives advocating for passage of the legislation.
“Prescription drug abuse is a problem reaching epidemic proportions in Pennsylvania,” Kane said. “This legislation will help to expand our drug prevention and education efforts and focus on treatment and recovery.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses now surpass automobile accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death for Americans between the ages of 25 and 64. More than 100 Americans die every day as a result of overdoses. More than half of those overdose deaths are caused by prescription drugs or heroin.
In the letter, the attorneys general write, “Law enforcement has always been on the frontline when it comes to drug crises, but we cannot arrest ourselves out of this current epidemic. Research shows the best way to address this challenge is through a strategy that includes prevention, law enforcement, reduction of overdose deaths, evidence-based treatment, and support for those in, or seeking, recovery.”
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015 will:
- Expand prevention and educational efforts — particularly aimed at teenagers, 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 to law enforcement agencies and other first responders to help in the reversal of overdoses to 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 opioids and heroin treatment and intervention program to assist in treatment and recovery throughout the country;
- Strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs to help states monitor and track prescription drug diversion and to help at-risk individuals access services.