Edelblut: Hamers special session
Wilton, New Hampshire- Governor Hassan and the Executive Council have called for a special session on November 18th to address the state’s heroin and opioid crisis. Representative Frank Edelblut believes that a special session will not accomplish its intended goal of fixing New Hampshire’s drug problem.
Representative Edelblut released the following statement:
“Governor Hassan and the Executive Council are living up to the low expectations people have of the government’s ability to lead on important issues facing New Hampshire. This request for a special session to deal with this crisis – and it is a crisis – is simply a knee jerk reaction to a problem we have all known exists. We all know that feet-dragging and politicizing on an issue like this is not real leadership, but that is what we have gotten. When confronted with concerns about an ineffective Drug Czar, Governor Hassan refused to act. When the legislature passed a responsible budget funding programs to help the crisis, the Governor vetoed it. That veto was overridden and the programs are now funded and moving forward.
What we don’t want to do is start throwing money at the problem without a thoughtful process that ensures we invest in programs that will give us results. There are a number of bills that have been filed for the next legislative session to continue to work on solutions to this problem and a last minute call for the legislature to come together and vote on rushed and un-vetted solutions could simply result in unintended problems. Let’s not deceive ourselves into believing that putting the government rather than doctors in charge of prescribing pain medication will be an improvement.”
