In Meeting with Drug Czar Nominee, Heitkamp Reinforces Critical Role of Top Federal Agency in Fighting Opioid & Meth Epidemic in North Dakota
Press Release
U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp met with Jim Carroll, the president's nominee serve as the White House Drug Czar, who would lead the federal agency responsible for coordinating the federal response to address the nationwide illegal drug and addiction crisis and for overseeing anti-drug trafficking efforts in North Dakota.
During their meeting, Heitkamp expressed her concerns about the administration's proposal to slash federal funding by 95 percent for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), which Mr. Carroll would lead. The ONDCP oversees two critical federal grant programs that strengthen collaborative efforts between federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement responses to illegal narcotics trafficking, as well as work to prevent and treat drug addiction in North Dakota.
Over the past few years, drug abuse and drug-related deaths have steeply risen across rural America. In North Dakota, drug-related deaths increased by nearly 400 percent from 2013 to 2016. And from 1999 to 2015, opioid deaths in rural America quadrupled among 18-25 year olds, reinforcing the need for a strong leader to head the ONDCP to help mitigate and prevent addiction and abuse.
"Across our state, I've spoken with so many North Dakotans about these heartbreaking challenges during meetings on combating drug addiction and abuse over the past three years, and we need strong federal and community responses. As the shadow of addiction spreads across the towns and farms of rural America, now is not the time to massively cripple the federal agency tasked with coordinating law enforcement and allocating the resources to combat this growing crisis," said Heitkamp. "After a tragic fentanyl-related death in Grand Forks, ONDCP supported a task force through HIDTA funding that participated in an investigation that led to dozens of indictments, showing that the agency is already reining in drug crimes in North Dakota and seeking justice against those distributing potentially lethal drugs. But as I've long said, we can't arrest our way out of this problem, and I'm calling on the administration to articulate a strategy that reflects that. In our meeting, I pushed Mr. Carroll to recognize the importance of a comprehensive plan that both bolsters local law enforcement and makes sure impacted folks have improved access to effective treatment and transitional services-- so they can be set on a sustainable path to recovery. I also invited him to come to North Dakota-- particularly Indian Country-- to truly understand the problems we are facing and how dire the drug trafficking and addiction issues are on North Dakota's reservations. By reducing the number of overdoses while making sure reduced drug crime is a top priority, we will make North Dakota communities strong and safer places to live and work."
The proposed cut to ONDCP funding would eliminate both the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and Drug Free Communities (DFC) programs, federal initiatives Heitkamp has championed in North Dakota that have been integral to anti-trafficking efforts in the state and across the country. In North Dakota, Cass, Grand Forks, Richland, Walsh, Burleigh, Morton, Ward, and Williams counties receive federal HIDTA funding.
In February 2018, Heitkamp joined a bipartisan group of senators in urging the administration and key Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to avoid slashing ONDCP funding. Additionally, they reinforced the importance of a well-funded ONDCP within the White House.
Heitkamp has consistently pushed for ONDCP leadership to understand the needs of North Dakota amid this ongoing epidemic. In August 2014, Heitkamp joined then-ONDCP Acting Director Michael Botticelli in Minot to announce a new national strategy to combat drug crime and trafficking across the country, with a particular focus on addressing drug problems in North Dakota. This announcement was made after Heitkamp brought former ONDCP Director R. Gil Kerlikowske to North Dakota in July 2013 to meet with local law enforcement and tribal officials about the major increase in drug crimes in the oil patch. Following the 2013 visit, ONDCP announced a series of steps to help reduce drug crime and abuse in the Bakken, including designating Williams County as a HIDTA.
Every $1 invested in prevention through ONDCP programs like DFC leads to up to $10 in savings, reinforcing the usefulness of the federal prevention funding ONDCP provides to local communities. By coordinating the federal, state, and local law enforcement response to drug trafficking, the HIDTA program dismantled 2,880 drug trafficking organizations in 2014 alone-- seizing more than $1.1 billion from drug traffickers, removing 2.5 million kilos of illegal narcotics from the market, and providing intelligence help to more than 26,000 investigations.
Heitkamp has successfully fought for bipartisan, comprehensive legislation to address the ripple effects of the overdose epidemic on children, families, and rural communities. In April 2018, Heitkamp's provisions to address and mitigate detrimental exposure to trauma were included in a bipartisan bill passed in a Senate Committee to address opioid and other substance abuse. Additionally, her provisions to improve the Opioid State Targeted Response (STR) grant program were also included.
Background
Heitkamp has worked extensively to tackle the opioid addiction and abuse crisis in North Dakota. Since fighting North Dakota's methamphetamine crisis as the state's attorney general in the 1990s, Heitkamp has been working to stem the tide of addiction, abuse, and illegal drug trafficking in the state's rural communities. On the federal level, Heitkamp has been working to address this issue by:
Helping pass legislation to combat opioid abuse, and helping introduce a bill to provide more federal resources to address the epidemic. Heitkamp has repeatedly advocated for more federal resources to address opioid addiction and recovery. She has been fighting for community-based prevention and treatment resources to combat opioid abuse, helping pass the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) in March 2016 which uses existing funds to expand tools for first responders, law enforcement, and educators. She also helped introduce the LifeBOAT Act to fill in some of the holes by making sure the federal government is funding efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. CARA also included bipartisan legislation, which Heitkamp helped introduce, to combat drug trafficking by prosecuting foreign drug traffickers -- whose products have often ended up in North Dakota -- who attempt to hide behind loopholes in the country's drug crime laws. In February 2018, Heitkamp also unveiled the Opioid Response Enhancement Act, which she helped introduce to expand a critical federal grant program to provide $12 billion over five years for local organizations to treat drug abuse and addiction while preventing further overdoses.
Holding listening sessions to identify strategies to battle the opioid crisis at the community level. Starting in May 2016, Heitkamp has now hosted seven listening sessions across North Dakota with community leaders, treatment experts, law enforcement officers, and families who have been impacted by abuse. Those meetings have taken place in Bismarck, Grand Forks, Fargo, Jamestown, Minot, Dickinson, and Hazen to discuss the federal support these communities need to recover from and prevent opioid addiction. Heitkamp also joined Fargo's City Commission for a meeting on a strategic response to the growing opioid addiction and abuse in the community.
Convening statewide leaders to comprehensively battle drug crime and abuse. In 2015, Heitkamp hosted a Strong & Safe Communities Summit with 150 statewide leaders where they discussed ways to combat growing instances of drug crime, particularly in western North Dakota. Heitkamp launched her Strong & Safe Communities Initiative in 2014 to address challenges facing North Dakota, including drug crime increases, to make sure North Dakota communities are strong and families are safe in their homes.
Fighting opioid abuse in Indian Country. Heitkamp recently led effort to urge Senate leaders to prioritize robust, direct funding to tribal communities to address the ongoing opioid epidemic in Native American communities, and also spoke at a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs oversight hearing on combating the opioid addiction epidemic in Indian Country.
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