Rick Gallant's Response to President Trump's Opioid “Solution”

CORNING, N.Y. – While addressing the media at the clubhouse of his private golf resort, President Trump laid out his solutions for addressing the nationwide opioid epidemic: "We can keep them from going on [drugs] and maybe by talking to youth and telling them, ‘no good, really bad for you in every way,’ but if they don’t start, it will never be a problem.”

Democratic congressional candidate Rick Gallant issued the following response:

“With the opioid epidemic intensifying and more than 140 Americans dying each day, we must do better than this. If ‘just say no’ were an effective strategy, we wouldn’t have the crisis we see today.

Addiction requires long-term and affordable treatment; it won’t be solved with a 28-day stay in a rehabilitation center. We need stronger oversight on the distribution of prescription pharmaceuticals. Our law enforcement community is strained by the resources exhausted trying to address the crisis. Proposed Republican cuts to Medicaid would only make a bad situation worse by further reducing the resources available to deal with this crisis.”

About Rick Gallant

Rick Gallant is running for Congress as a Democrat in New York's 23rd Congressional District. Raised by a family of educators, Rick Gallant has served as a teacher and basketball coach in the Corning-Painted Post School District in New York for the past 17 years. A former assistant college basketball coach and sportswriter, Rick and his wife, Amy, moved to the area two decades ago and ran a small business running whitewater rafting tours.