Pennsylvania’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro was in Harrisburg Thursday, asking state lawmakers for more than two million dollars towards the fight against the drug epidemic. A.G. Shapiro told the legislators that drug addiction needs to be treated as a disease and not a crime.
Along side A.G. Shapiro’s side at the state Capitol was Dawn Futrell of Altoona. Futrell lost her son last year due to a heroin overdose. Futrell’s main message to the lawmakers was that this epidemic does not discriminate. She expressed her concern for more funding to access longer treatment and more centers.
The Attorney General also is trying to enact laws that would require insurance companies to help cover some of the costs of drug addiction treatment services, along with adding money into education of opioid addiction in the schools.