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Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016

Floor Speech

Date: May 12, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Drugs Legal

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Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 5046. I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for his work to combat the Nation's opioid epidemic.

This legislation is important to the whole country and will especially have positive impacts in Arkansas by freeing up new grants for funds for drug courts. Drug courts have a positive impact on people's lives and are integral to countering our Nation's opioid epidemic.

Drug courts in Arkansas have a strong record of success. Last week I visited with Judge Berlin Jones in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. His Jefferson County drug court has a recidivism rate of only 4.9 percent.

Drug courts have also saved billions of taxpayer dollars, on average, because it costs $14 a day to send a person to a drug court whereas incarceration costs $58 per day in my State of Arkansas. Taxpayers also save money because these individuals can return to the workforce and provide for their families.

Mr. Chairman, I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 5046 to counter this epidemic ruining our families and communities.

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