Too many incarcerated individuals suffer from untreated mental health and substance use disorder, and most lack access to the treatment they need. Ed introduced the CREATE Opportunities Act to create a new grant program for state and local governments to provide medically-assisted treatment (MAT) in their correctional facilities. The program would require grantees to provide more than one MAT option and to develop a plan for connecting individuals to continued treatment upon release into the community.

Ed knows that having access to treatment in the days after release from incarceration is critical in a person’s recovery efforts. That is why he introduced legislation that would prohibit states from terminating an inmate’s Medicaid coverage while they are incarcerated, a practice that often prevents individuals from accessing treatment in the critical days and weeks after release.

We also have to tackle the source of the problem – stopping illicit fentanyl from crossing United States borders in the first place. That’s why Ed was able to pass his groundbreaking legislation, the INTERDICT Act, which equipped U.S. Customs and Border Protection with hi-tech scanning devices to detect synthetic opioids.

Opioids pose a grave threat to our nation, and Ed is committed to improving and increasing access to treatment and stopping the flow of illicit fentanyl into the U.S.