In Worthington, Portman Says We Must Address Drug Epidemic at Every Level

"Well first, it's my honor to be here and Tylar, thank you for your willingness to come tonight. I had not been aware of your family connection to this, but it doesn't surprise me that you have a passion for it, whether you have a direct connection or not. He has been terrific. I was interviewed by Jerry Revish probably four months ago for Heroin at Home and he wanted to dig deep because he knew that this issue was affecting the Central Ohio community in significant ways and frankly one of the most effective ways for us to address this issue and begin to turn the tide is to increase the awareness. I can't tell you how many people, even though this issue has affected every ZIP code and every walk of life, still don't realize what those warning signs are and still don't realize the connection between prescription drugs and heroin and fentanyl and other opioids. Probably 4 out of 5 of the heroin addicts in Ohio today started with prescription drugs. So honestly what he has done and others who are willing to talk about this issue publicly have saved a lot of lives. I mean honestly you can't say that, Tylar, about all your reporting, certainly not on the political front these days. This issue, raising the awareness and letting people know what is happening, and how they can take steps in their own families, in their communities, at work, in church, with friends, to be able to help address it is incredibly powerful and ultimately it is our families and our communities who will be turning the tide on this issue.

"Right now it's increasing. It's getting worse; it's not getting better. And I know this because I spend a lot of time around the state of Ohio talking to people about it. I've been at this for a couple of decades. I'm not proud of that. It seems like, you know, we should have been able to solve this problem, right? But every time we take our eye off the ball--in the 1990s when I first got engaged with this issue, early 90s it was crack-cocaine. Then it was methamphetamines. Then at least for a while it was prescription drugs. Then it switched to heroin which is less expensive and more accessible. This issue continues to be up there unless we make a commitment as a community to keep our eye on the ball. Continue to push hard on prevention and education to keep people from getting into that funnel of addiction in the first place. And then once people are addicted, to change the way we view this, change our whole paradigm, and understanding that addiction is a disease. It has to be treated like a disease, like cancer, or like Parkinson's, or diabetes. And if we don't do that, then we aren't going to be able to save these people who are addicted, most of whom are not seeking treatment. Tylar talked about the stigma, and that stigma among other things keeps people from coming forward. Keeps a lot of families from talking about it, doesn't it? I want to thank Trent for being here and for what he is doing in the school system.

"I'll tell you a quick story. When I first got involved in this issue, it was mostly because a constituent came to me my first year I was elected to the House, in 1994, and she said, "what are you doing? I just lost my son to an overdose. What are you doing to help?' And I had all the answers for her: this much money on interdiction of drugs, this much money on eradicating drugs in Colombia, this much money on law enforcement, incarceration. "So what are you doing to help me?' I went to a school. And it wasn't in Worthington. And they said, "we don't have a problem here.' She said "my son just died. He was with five other kids, and they were all into drugs.' "We don't have a problem here.' She goes to her church. The pastor says "I don't really want to talk about it.' We're in denial. That's not happening in Worthington. Look at this crowd, look at the people who are here, look at the leadership here, city council, look at the leadership here from Columbus. The fact is Stephanie, Jim, Mike DeWine, our Attorney General, they are all over this issue. This is not an issue that people are saying, I'm not going to get involved. People are saying, yeah, it's a problem in my family, it's a problem in my neighborhood, it's a problem in my church and my school. Getting rid of that stigma and beginning to deal with this issue is so incredibly important. And then the question is, what can the federal government do? We spent three and a half years studying this; we had five conferences in Washington D.C. Some of the experts here on the panel I've been with before. We've had a lot of input from them. Jim, thank you for your hard work on this. I just left the drug court down in Dayton, Ohio where law enforcement is all in on trying to figure this out. They don't want to lock up more people because it doesn't work. They get out of prison; they're still addicted; they commit more crimes. They want to divert more people through treatment. After three and a half years of looking at this, we said the federal government has a role to play, which is to send federal resources in a more effective way to what works--the kind of medication, treatment, and longer term recovery that works and the kind of prevention that is going to work better. Also they help our law enforcement, and our fire fighters, and the first responders.

"I've talked to the firefighters that are here tonight. I asked the same question I ask them all over Ohio: "are you doing more Narcan runs or are you doing more fire runs?' You know what the answer is: Narcan, overdoses, by far. So we help them in this legislation. This legislation is federal. It's really, in my view, making the federal government a better partner with Worthington, with Ohio, with the nonprofits who are in the trenches doing incredible work. It is frustrating, because it's a tough issue. For those of you who have been affected by this in your families, you know what I'm talking about. The recidivism rates are high, the relapse rates are high. It's a tough issue. The grip of this addiction is unlike others.

"There's also hope. And I'll tell you one that's sprung up right down the street at the VFW. I was there hosting a roundtable discussion about a year ago on the veterans' court here in Columbus, which is awesome. Some of the work that is being done again to divert people out of the prison system and into the treatment system, who are veterans who put their lives on the line for us. I ran into a fellow named Ryan. Ryan was not a young man, was probably in his mid-thirties. He had been in and out of the criminal justice system a lot. He finally found this veterans' court where he was surrounded by other veterans and people that cared about him and cared about getting into his issues and why he was using. He is now not only clean and sober, ladies and gentlemen, he is now at The Ohio State University about to graduate. He got his life back together. He's got his family back together. There is hope.

"Of all the tough stories you're going to hear, some of these stories are unbelievable, as I've said tonight, they have taken their grief and they have channeled it into something so positive. The good work Mike DeWine is doing and others. We're going to hear some tough stories tonight, but we also have to realize that at the end of the day there is hope and there is the opportunity for us to allow people to achieve their God-given purpose in life if we pull together and address this issue at every level. I hope I can continue to help at the federal level. Thank you."

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