Presidential Candidates Talk About Drug Abuse on the Campaign Trail

Presidential candidates are discussing drug abuse in campaign events in Iowa and New Hampshire, NPR reports.

New Jersey Govenor Chris Christie recently visited the Farnum Center, a drug and alcohol treatment center in Manchester, New Hampshire. In 2014 more than 300 people in the state died of drug overdoses, mostly from heroin and painkillers such as oxycodone.

At the center, Christie spoke about a law school friend who became addicted to prescription painkillers after injuring his back. “One Sunday morning I got a phone call that they found him in a hotel room with an empty bottle of Percocet and a bottle of vodka. And he was gone,” Christie said.

He argues that resources should be used for treatment and recovery instead of incarceration. Until recently, that position would have been risky for a politician, but is now increasingly considered mainstream, the article notes.

Hillary Clinton has two aides working to draft policy to address drug abuse. She speaks about the issue regularly as part of her opening remarks at campaign events. “When I started thinking about this campaign, I did not believe I would be standing in your living room talking about the drug abuse problem, the mental health problem and the suicide problem,” she said at a recent Iowa event. “But I am now convinced I have to talk about it. I have to do everything I can in this campaign to raise it, to end the stigma against talking about it.”

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has co-sponsored a bill that aims to help low-level drug offenders re-enter society. The REDEEM Act would reform criminal background checks and the juvenile justice system. Criminal records for teenage offenders would be sealed, and adults could apply to have their records expunged.