I know Senator Portman has been directly involved in that concern, and Members of the House and the Senate have been.

It takes more and more dosages.

They grow the poppies in Mexico. They ship it across our southern border into Ohio.

The most visible sign of opioid epidemic in Ohio, of course, is the number of deaths that we have.

What starts as a $10-a-day habit may go to $1,000-a-day habit.

Our jails in Ohio are overflowing.

Law enforcement is a key component part, but we are not going to arrest our way out of this problem.

I have served now as Ohio Attorney General for just over six years.

We need to break down barriers to communication.

What we have done is reached out to businesses and asked them to give us their best people literally to put on a group to start working on these issues.

I think what I would like to see is the Federal Government prioritize, we understand they can't take every case, make some examples.

As you know, and the members of the Committee know, a lot of these scams are targeted specifically at elderly.

There is strength in numbers.

What is different today is that they now have the long arm of both the Internet and phones!

One of the things that we've done in Ohio is pass a law that provides that a parent can go to the credit reporting agencies and actually freeze that child's credit.

We're helping the smaller jurisdictions, so we can bring forensic accountants in, for example, if we're dealing with something having to do with fraud, money fraud.

You don't want to tell the bad guys everything you know. You want to keep them guessing.

Do imagine if fill in a small community, who someone came in, killed eight members of a family. Four different homes.

You cannot arrest your way out of it.

I do not think it is getting better.

We have taken, and I say we, because we are the lawyers for the State Medical Board, and we pushed this.

But, all of us together, that is why the stool has to have the four legs, all of us together, we can make a difference.

Overdose deaths have tripled from 99 to 2010.

There is too much stigma attached to addiction. And, it is a disease.

I want to compliment you, Senator Portman, for the CARA Act, and, you, Senator Brown, for your work in support of it.