Take Action: Support the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act

ASAM is joining a mass call-your-senator/house-representative-day on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, and needs your help in contacting your Senator(s) and/or House of Representatives.

The Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act (CARA) 2015 is the most expansive federal, bipartisan legislation to date for recovery support services, designating up to $80 million toward advancing treatment and recovery support services in state and local communities across the country.

CARA will:

• Expand prevention and educational efforts—particularly aimed at teens, parents and other caretakers, and aging populations—to prevent the abuse of opioids and heroin and to promote treatment and recovery.
• Expand the availability of naloxone to law enforcement agencies and other first responders to help in the reversal of overdoses to save lives.
• Expand resources to identify and treat incarcerated individuals suffering from addiction disorders promptly by collaborating with criminal justice stakeholders and by providing evidence-based treatment.
• Expand disposal sites for unwanted prescription medications to keep them out of the hands of our children and adolescents.
• Launch an evidence-based opioid and heroin treatment and interventions program. While we have services and medications that can help treat addiction, there is a critical need to get the training and resources necessary to expand use of evidence-based treatment services and medications to assist in treatment and recovery throughout the country.
• Strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs to help states monitor and track prescription drug diversion and to help at-risk individuals access services.

Contacting your congressional representatives is easy--Young People in Recovery has created a simple script and a listing of representative phone numbers by state and district.

• Click here to access the script and get your representative's number now.

Lend your voice on Wednesday, April 29, by participating in the national call-in day, and let your representatives know the importance of supporting addiction treatment.