Statement from Governor Hassan on President's Proposal of Additional Resources to Combat Heroin and Opioid Crisis

Statement

Governor Maggie Hassan issued the following statement today on President Obama's proposal to provide states with additional treatment resources to help combat the heroin and opioid crisis:

"The heroin and opioid crisis is the most urgent public health and public safety challenge facing New Hampshire, and combating this crisis requires us all to work together at the state, federal and local levels every single day. Our law enforcement community and public health experts across the state have made it clear that we cannot arrest our way out of this crisis, and I am encouraged by the President's recognition that states need additional support from our federal partners to support prevention, treatment and recovery programs.

"In New Hampshire, we have focused on a comprehensive approach to support law enforcement and strengthen prevention, treatment and recovery, working across party lines on various measures such as our recent bipartisan legislation to crack down on fentanyl, streamline access to treatment and strengthen our prescription drug monitoring program. But we all know that there is more work to do to give patients, providers, families, educators and law enforcement better tools to combat this horrible epidemic, including reauthorizing our bipartisan health care expansion plan, which has provided substance abuse and behavioral health services to thousands of Granite Staters and is essential to increasing treatment capacity."

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