Local leaders warn House cuts to overdose and naloxone funding would reverse progress on overdose deaths

Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus and other local officials told the Senate Health Committee that cuts in the House-passed budget to overdose-prevention funding would threaten years of progress reducing overdose deaths.

"We strongly support the governor's version of the budget related to funding for strategies to reduce overdose deaths, including funding for naloxone," Driehaus said. She told senators Hamilton County and its partners had distributed more than 30,000 doses of naloxone since 2014 and credited the medication with contributing to a 51 percent decrease in overdose fatalities in the county since 2017.

Clermont County Commissioner David Painter described early local impacts of the heroin epidemic and said broad naloxone distribution saved lives; local EMS administered more than 200 naloxone doses in 2024, he said, and the county has provided thousands of doses through law enforcement and community programs.

Chief Thomas Thinnan, Newtown Police Department, said naloxone has saved thousands in Ohio over the past decade and urged restoration of funding for the Department of Health's chronic disease, injury prevention and drug overdose line item (440482 in testimony materials). He warned that new fentanyl analogs and precursors continue to pose a threat and that broad naloxone access is an essential first step in linking survivors to treatment and recovery resources.

Witnesses urged the Senate to amend HB 96 to align overdose-response funding with the governor's proposal and to restore the House reductions. No committee vote was taken during the hearing.