The Senate Health, Human Services and Aging Committee voted Wednesday to bring House Bill 93 to a vote on the Senate Floor. The bill calls for the regulation of pain clinics throughout Ohio.

“This is a very positive move by the Senate. This is keeping with our promise to move this bill along as quickly as we can through each body of the state Legislature,” said State Rep. Dr. Terry Johnson, who was one of the original sponsors of the bill. “I have been understandably impatient. I view the problem we are trying to attack as threatening lives and causing crime. Therefore we need to act as quickly as possible.”

After speaking to Senate President Tom Niehaus, Johnson said the bill should come up for a vote on the Senate floor next week. If the Senate passes the bill it will then be sent to Gov. John Kasich for his signature.

“House Bill 93 has already had an enormous impact and it’s not even a law yet. The energy we’ve been able to build at the community level and the energy we’ve been able to build at the state level has been huge,” Johnson said. “Because we’ve come together and acted like a community we now have this bill and this bill is one thrust of a major initiative.”