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Blumenthal Co-Sponsors Bill To Fight Opioid Abuse

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut)
Lauren Victoria Burke
/
AP

The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would fund more than a billion dollars to fight heroin and opioid abuse. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is a sponsor of that bill.

Blumenthal spoke to health workers on Friday at a forum at Bridgeport’s Southwest Community Health Center. He compared Connecticut’s current spike in heroin and opioid overdoses to a storm.

“Like a tornado or other natural disaster, it requires the same kind of focus and energy and urgency,” Blumenthal said.

415 people died of opioid overdoses in Connecticut in 2015. That’s more than twice as many as in 2012. The funding package before the Senate would put money toward more law enforcement, programs to prevent drug addiction, and services to help people recover from addiction.

Representatives from some of those services were at the forum. Michael Askew, with the Bridgeport Recovery Community Center, said recovery centers need more funding because insurance companies often don’t cover long-term treatment.

“You know, I work in the trenches, and it’s like people are saying, when I’m ready to get treatment, there should be no wrong door for people to be able to access treatment. It shouldn’t be about insurance,” he said.

The Senate began debating the funding package last week, and Blumenthal said he expects it to come up for a vote this week. Blumenthal said the specifics of the funding package aren’t clear yet, but the Democrat said the overall package has bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Senate. 

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.