House Budget Pumps $170m Into Solving Ohio’s Opiate Epidemic

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Money to create a smartphone app, establish a 24-hour hotline and fund other inventive ways to tackle Ohio’s opioid crisis is included in a package of budget revisions majority House Republicans unveiled Tuesday. Speaker Clifford Rosenberger, Finance Chairman Ryan Smith and others said their version of Ohio’s two-year operating budget adds more than $170 million to address the scourge driven by prescription painkillers and heroin. Smith said lawmakers prioritized the problem despite a projected $800 million revenue shortfall.