Capito, Manchin help pass opioid bill

MARTINSBURG — U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on Tuesday voted to pass the Opioid Crisis Response Act that provides new funding to fight the nation’s opioid crisis. 

The Senate passed the bipartisan bill–which includes numerous provisions based on legislation Capito introduced or co-sponsored–by a vote of 99 to 1. 

“This tells you that on something as big as this problem that we have — not just West Virginia, but the entire county — that we came together and worked through it,”Capito said. “This is something that we are moving in the right direction.” Capito said the bill’s passage is long overdue. 

“West Virginia has had to deal with the devastating consequences of the opioid epidemic longer and more directly than nearly any other state in the country,”Capito said. “That’s given us a unique perspective when it comes to the causes and challenges related to this crisis, as well as what it’s going to take to fight and someday end it.” 

Capito called the bill’s passage a major step in the nation’s long-term battle against opioid addiction. 

“This isn’t a silver bullet, but it is an important part of a much broader solution,” Capito said. 

In a revised version of the original bill, Manchin secured a provision in the bill package to ensure West Virginia gets additional opioid funding. 

Previously, the bill’s funding was based on states’ overall opioid overdose death counts rather than rate of overdose deaths, which hurt states like West Virginia with small populations but higher per capita opioid addiction. 

“They were basically using a blanket before when giving money,” Manchin said. “It wasn’t based on the rate of opioid incidents that you had. We said ‘you’ve got us here fighting on the front line of the opioid battle, and we’re running out of ammunition.'” 

Additional funding will allow West Virginia and other smaller states to stabilize areas previously not funded and allow it to open new treatment areas, Manchin said. 

“This is a whole world of difference in how we’ll be able to respond,” Manchin said. 

The bill also pushes for pharmaceutical development of nonaddictive pain medicines. 

“We are incentivizing these companies to do the research to produce a product that gives the same relief as the opioid does, but is not (addictive),” Manchin said. 

In other opioid related news, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1.6 million to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to expand Naloxone distribution to emergency medical services agencies and West Virginia State Police. 

“Our first responders are on the front lines of fighting the opioid epidemic and naloxone is an immeasurably valuable resource for this fight. Ensuring every EMS professional, our police officers and other first responders are equipped is critically important,”Manchin said.