Perhaps you didn’t know, but Ohio is in the midst of a heroin epidemic, and it’s so bad that some think we are in a state of emergency. Since heroin addiction is one of the things we deal with every day at the Center for Effective Living, this sad fact isn’t as shocking to us as it might be to the general public. Please read this excerpt from an article about the issue from Cleveland.com, and click the link below for the full article.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — House Democrats on Tuesday called on Gov. John Kasich to declare a public health emergency for heroin abuse and overdose in Ohio and provide more funding to law enforcement and treatment centers to fight the problem.
Lawmakers said they plan to introduce a series of bills to fund prevention and treatment proggrams and study how to fund those efforts in next year’s state budget bill.
“The numbers are very clear that we have a public health emergency in this state and we need to address it as soon as we can,” Rep. Matt Lundy, an Elyria Democrat, told reporters. “Ohio has the 12th highest overdose rate in the country — a record 606 Ohioans died from heroin overdoses in 2012. … At least 200,000 Ohioans are addicted to opioids such as heroin.”