Candidate for the U.S. Senate and former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland cited a job he held in Scioto County in explaining why he understands and supports the drug treatment provisions in the Omnibus Budget Bill.

“When you’re from a working class community in Appalachia and worked as a prison (Southern Ohio Correctional Facility) psychologist, the horrific impact of drug abuse is no abstraction: it is a very real and very dangerous threat to the people of Ohio,” Strickland said. “As governor, I went after this problem through both enforcement and treatment. We brought healthcare and public safety officials together to crack down on illegal prescriptions by launching the Ohio Prescription Drug Taskforce, supported local treatment programs through community grants, and worked to educate thousands of Ohioans about the dangers of addiction. In the Senate I will continue to do everything I can to fight against this scourge to our society.”

Strickland also took the opportunity to lash out against his opponent, incumbent U.S. Senator Rob Portman, on the same issue saying that after Portman touted the drug treatment provisions, he actually voted against the bill.

“What I will not do — and what Senator Portman has now done repeatedly — is tell folks in Ohio one thing, and then do the exact opposite on Congress,” Strickland said. “Stopping the epidemic of drug abuse in Ohio is too important for these kinds of political games. And the kind of double-speak that Senator Portman is practicing on this and so many other issues is exactly why working people in Ohio are so fed up with the Washington establishment.”