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Ohio House Democrats to Propose Bill That Will Create Drug Policy Post

Rep. Richard Brown
Jo Ingles
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Democratic Rep. Richard Brown speaks (at the microphone) while surrounded by supporters of the drug policy bill.

Democrats in the Ohio House say they plan to introduce a bill in the lame duck session of the legislature later this year that would, among other things, create a cabinet level position to deal with drug policy. 
Rep. Richard Brown says Gov. John Kasich’s executive order to create an opioid action team is only temporary.

“While we appreciate what’s been done, we don’t think it’s enough yet,” Brown said. 
 
Brown is proposing a bill to create a cabinet level office to work with communities in fighting opioid abuse.
He says mayors and both the Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates proposed a similar office.
 
Kasich spokesman Jon Keeling said that won’t solve the problem, and the state is spending $1 billion on the opioid crisis now. But Brown notes heroin and fentanyl overdoses kill more Ohioans under 50 than car accidents, breast cancer and gun violence combined.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.