“It’s a risk we do not need to be taking,” MacArthur told reporters at the event at Herman Costello Lyceum Hall. “I understand marijuana may have a medical use and I’m certainly OK with using it in that context. But we’re in the middle of the worst drug crisis in history and you want to legalize more drugs.”
The Republican lawmaker has made tackling the opioid addiction crisis one of his top priorities in Congress, and his work on the issue has also become a focus of his campaign for a third term representing the 3rd Congressional District.
His race against Democratic challenger Any Kim is considered among the most competitive congressional races in the country, with the Washington D.C.-based Cook Political Report rating it a “toss up” following a Monmouth University poll showing the two candidates neck and neck.
During his remarks, MacArthur called the opioid and heroin epidemic “the No. 1 domestic crisis facing our nation” and an issue that requires all levels of government and community organizations working together.
“It takes all of us to make a dent in this. It can’t just be local government, it needs to be county and state and federal government ... It needs to be non-for-profit organization and for-profit organizations. It needs to be all of us,” he said.
The $125,000 grant came from the federal Drug-Free Communities Support Program, which is overseen by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. The office was targeted to be defunded by President Donald Trump’s administration, but MacArthur and other lawmakers successfully fought against the breakup of the office, arguing that its work coordinating policy actions was more important now than ever.