Heroin and other opioid drugs are a growing fear for Congressman Darin LaHood, who hopes a series of roundtable discussions he is sponsoring will help in the search for answers to fight the epidemic.
LaHood spoke to the Journal-Courier about the roundtables and other pressing issues, including the presidential election, after a presentation to the Jacksonville Rotary Club on Friday.
“Overdoses have now overtaken car accidents in terms of death,” LaHood said. “We have over 80 a day across the country, and it’s spiked in west-central Illinois. I wanted to hear from my constituents … what’s working? What’s not working? What do we need in terms of resources for law enforcement?”
LaHood hosted three discussions, one each in Quincy, Bloomington and Springfield. The talks involved law enforcement, justice system and medical professionals.
One of the major points that came out of the discussions was the need for funding for rehabilitation programs, LaHood said. Many talked about the perceived need to control of how easily and how often physicians are able to prescribe opioid medications such as Vicodin or Oxycodone.
Because of the addictive potential of these drugs, he said there’s a natural tendency to slip into heroin abuse because heroin can be obtained easily and cheaply.
Increasing the resources for officers to stop the flow of heroin from Mexico into the United States is also paramount, LaHood said.
The congressman, who co-chaired former candidate Marco Rubio’s campaign, also spoke candidly about the November presidential race and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Trump’s likely selection as the Republican candidate has sparked divide within the political party. LaHood, a Republican, said while he is not happy with some of the things Trump has said during the campaign, the people have spoken and voted to put Trump on the ballot.
“Voters have spoken and this is who they’ve come up with,” LaHood said. “I think it’s a reflection of the uncertainty of the economy. People are sick of promises made by politicians. For a long time, Republicans said ‘give us the House, give us the Senate, things are going to change.’ Well, we did that and not much changed.”
Still, LaHood said he worries about how Trump has alienated some people and groups.
“Whether that’s talking about a registration for Muslims [or] what he said about Hispanics and women, I think it’s hard to walk back those comments,” he said.
The congressman said he doesn’t believe that building a wall along the United States and Mexico border — one of Trump’s most frequent promises — would be the solution to the issue of illegal immigration.
“As a formal federal prosecutor, I’ve actually prosecuted immigration cases in federal court and I know the issue very well,” he said. “First of all, we have to shore up our southern border. We have to shore that up with more resources for Border Patrol agents to stem the tide of illegal immigrants coming across the border. That has to be first and foremost. … Second of all, we have to enforce the laws that we have now.”
He said he is supportive of the legal immigration process as well a visa process that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
On the state level, LaHood said he has seen the direct hit service agencies have taken as a result of the ongoing budget impasse. He said he’d like to see the budget fixed in Illinois so those agencies that provide necessary services to people.
