Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul made a stop at Kentucky River Community Care in Hazard for a discussion on how the legislation they helped pass could help stop the drug epidemic in the mountains.
Congress earlier this year passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which sets aside more than $180 million in new federal money to help treat and prevent the abuse of opioids, including heroin. President Obama signed the bill into law.
“We both are deeply concerned about the epidemic that’s sweeping the whole country and Kentucky, as well,” McConnell said Tuesday.
McConnell and Paul met with former addicts, law enforcement officials, medical workers and others on the front line of the battle against drug abuse.
“More people are dying from heroin overdoses in our state than from car accidents,” Paul said. “That’s a real problem. We all need to pull together to do something about it.”
“Quite frankly, to fight this epidemic you need money,” Meade-McKenzie said. “The grant-funding opportunities in this bill I hope are going to make a significant difference in the fight against drugs.”
Even though President Obama signed the opioid bill, he criticized congressional Republicans for not putting more funding behind it.
When asked Tuesday about the president’s comments, McConnell said, “He signed it and it passed overwhelmingly. We’ve increased the funding between last year and next year by a hundred percent. He wouldn’t have signed it, I assume, if he hadn’t approved of it.”
McConnell also visited Pikeville earlier Tuesday.