Sen. Bernie Sanders took on the issue of heroin addiction during Saturday night’s third Democratic debate, calling on voters and politicians to come to grips with addiction being “a disease, not a criminal activity.”
Sanders, along with fellow candidates Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley, touched on the issue, calling the situation in both New Hampshire and his home state of Vermont a “tragedy,” adding that those in the medical and pharmaceutical fields need to get “their act together.”
“Look, this is tragedy for New Hampshire. It’s a tragedy for my state of Vermont. It is a tragedy all over this country,” Sanders said. “The number of heroin deaths are growing very, very significantly. What do we do? Well first off, this may seem like a radical idea, but I think we have got to tell the medical profession and doctors who are prescribing opiates and the pharmaceutical industry that they have got to start getting their act together.”
“Second of all, I believe in a healthcare for all program. We need to understand that addiction is a disease, not a criminal activity,” Sanders blared. “That means radically changing the way we deal with mental health and addiction issues. When somebody’s addicted and seeking help.”
Clinton went on to discuss the issue at length, pointing to voters asking her about the issue during her first stop in the Granite State early on in her campaign.
“All over New Hampshire, I met grandmothers who raise children because they’ve lost the father or the mother because they’ve lost due to an overdose,” Clinton said. “This is a major epidemic, and it has hit New Hampshire and Vermont hard.”
The former secretary of state added that she’s held two town hall events on this issue only, telling host David Muir that she was also proud to get the endorsement of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who has struggled with alcohol addiction.
“I’ve laid out a five-point plan about what we can do together. I would like the federal government to offer $10 billion over ten years to work with states … We have to do more on the prescribing end of it,” Clinton said. “There are too many opiates being prescribed, and that leads directly now to heroin addiction — and we have to change the way we do law enforcement, and of course we need more programs and facilities so when somebody is ready to get help, there’s a place for them to go.”
