Earlier this month, Senator pushed back against the Administration’s Plan to Cut Federal Anti-Drug Efforts by 95 Percent

HAZEN, N.D. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp today convened health care providers, treatment specialists, educators, and law enforcement officials in Hazen to discuss efforts to combat the state’s growing opioid and heroin crisis, which is devastating rural communities in North Dakota and across the country. It marks her seventh discussion on the issue across the state. Heitkamp also announced legislation she helped introduce to strengthen state, county, and tribal responses to opioid addiction.

During her seventh discussion across North Dakota aimed at finding long-term, bipartisan solutions to tackle the addiction epidemic, Heitkamp unveiled the Opioid Response Enhancement Act, which she helped introduce. The bill would 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. Additionally, the legislation would grant flexibility to states and tribes to allocate funding to treatment programs that best fit their communities. The bill builds on the LifeBOAT Act which Heitkamp helped introduce to provide needed federal funds for opioid intervention and treatment resources.

Earlier this month, Heitkamp pushed back— for the second year in a row— against the president’s efforts to slash federal funding for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Heitkamp and a bipartisan group of senators urged the White House and key Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to protect the critical work of the ONDCP, which coordinates the federal response to address the nationwide opioid epidemic. The senators raised their concerns after reports that the administration planned to propose a 95 percent funding cut to the ONDCP in its 2019 budget request and to remove the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and Drug Free Communities programs out of ONDCP. When the President released his budget on February 12, the ONDCP budget cuts and program eliminations were included.

“Today I sat down with Beulah-Hazen community members who are on the front lines of the growing opioid and meth addiction crisis. I heard from Mercer County law enforcement about the need to crack down on illegal narcotics trafficking and how first responders are reacting to an alarming uptick in overdoses. I talked with folks who have seen the epidemic seep into our high school classrooms. And I met the dedicated men and women who treat debilitating addictions in rural community health centers. In isolated communities, reliable access to this treatment and support through federally backed programs and Medicaid can often be the critical difference between life and death,” said Heitkamp. “To help North Dakota families and communities, I helped introduce a new bill that would provide rural America with additional funds to prevent substance abuse, treat addiction, and support recovery efforts as they best fit communities. As the opioid crisis continues to drain local resources, pushing for bills like this one and taking other actions can make sure our communities are strong and safe.”

At the roundtable discussion, Heitkamp heard concerns about the Beulah-Hazen region’s ability to mount a robust and coordinated response to the ongoing drug epidemic, and treatment providers from Coal Country Community Health Center explained how crucial rural hospitals are to the community and how any loss of federal funding could endanger the immediate wellbeing of local families and residents. Those in attendance stressed that rural communities face unique challenges as they combat drug abuse— and  prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts in these areas require the same level of attention as in larger cities.

“At our health centers and our local hospital, we are constantly reminded of the health issues and emotional pain that drug addiction can cause for individuals and their families in our communities. Through access to Medication Assisted Treatment, we have seen many of our patients find a sustainable and effective road to recovery,” said Melissa Herman LICSW/LAC, Director of Behavioral Health at Coal Country Community Health Center. “In rural communities such as ours, community health centers, rural health clinics, and hospitals are a vital lifeline for all citizens, particularly those impacted by addiction and abuse. We simply can’t forget the importance of reliable, affordable, and accessible health services for patients dealing with these issues. I want to thank Senator Heitkamp for giving the Beulah-Hazen community the opportunity to discuss our collaboration with various local leaders to address this public health emergency and build a coalition to strengthen our community’s response to these challenges. We appreciate Senator Heitkamp fighting in the U.S. Senate to help communities like ours get the resources we need to help combat this epidemic.”

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.

The crisis has also contributed to job loss, a decrease in economic productivity, and stunted opportunities for children impacted by substance abuse in their families. According to the White House Council of Economic Advisors, the estimated economic cost of the opioid crisis in 2015 was $504.0 billion, or 2.8 percent of GDP that year.

In addition to providing $12 billion for the State Targeted Response Grant program, the Opioid Response Enhancement Act would also provide an additional $1.5 billion for the remainder of the 2018 fiscal year for new federal resources and tools to combat the opioid addiction epidemic.                                                              

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.

Heitkamp has also pushed back against cuts in Republican health care bills that would slash Medicaid, which is a critical resource for individuals receiving treatment for opioid abuse and addiction. It pays for over a third of all medication-assisted treatment nationwide and 17.4 percent of opioid treatment payments in North Dakota, according to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee.

This discussion builds on Heitkamp’s work 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.

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.

Engaging statewide leaders on the front lines of North Dakota’s opioid addiction crisis. Heitkamp met with facility leaders, medical staff, and tribal leaders during her visits to MHA Nation’s Circle of Life Drug Treatment Center in May 2016 and Mercy Hospital in Devils Lake in March 2016 where she heard about the unique challenges they face in treating skyrocketing cases of heroin, methamphetamine, and opioid abuse on rural and tribal lands – often due to a lack of recovery resources.

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