The proposal, stalled since last year, was amended to another bill on opioid awareness
![Government workers](https://stopthejudgment.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/walking-into-the-pa-government-building-001.jpg)
The Pennsylvania House on Wednesday passed a bill establishing a lifetime grant program for substance use recovery.
House Bill 1783 also mandates the creation and distribution of opioid awareness materials. The bill passed on a 187 to 14 vote.
“As an ER doc, I have experienced the opioid epidemic in a very particular way,” Rep. Arvind Venkat (D-Allegheny) said on the House floor before the vote. “But it pales in comparison to that of families who have lost loved ones to the opioid crisis.”
Venkat was the prime sponsor of the opioid awareness legislation. The original bill did not include the substance use recovery grant program, but an amendment approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee added the treatment and recovery grant program to its priorities.
The amendment’s language was largely taken from a previously stalled bill sponsored by Rep. Joe Hohenstein (D-Philadelphia) and Rep. Jim Gregory (R-Blair/Huntingdon). House Bill 1650 was laid on the table in November 2023 and has not moved since.
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