--- title: Hillary Clinton's Drug Abuse Plan Started After a Voter Question description: Hillary Clinton’s $10 billion plan to combat drug and alcohol addiction announced Wednesday came about after a question from a voter. canonical: https://time.com/4020791/hillary-clinton-drug-abuse/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-02T21:51:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:41:48.251Z article:section: Politics og:title: A Voter Question Inspired Clinton's New Drug Abuse Plan og:description: "Do you have any ideas?" og:url: https://time.com/4020791/hillary-clinton-drug-abuse/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6e893b91179adc1/698861c7196cf49cab037d63/hillary-clinton-lobbying.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting on August 28, 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Voter Question Inspired Clinton's New Drug Abuse Plan twitter:description: "Do you have any ideas?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6e893b91179adc1/698861c7196cf49cab037d63/hillary-clinton-lobbying.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Voter Question Helped Inspire Hillary Clinton's New Drug Abuse Plan > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments [Watch (HLS stream): Hillary Clinton's Top 10 Political Moments](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/L3I0gpwt.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2015-04-09. Watch the top 10 moments from Hillary Clinton's career in politics._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 2, 2015 9:51 PM UTC  Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting on August 28, 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting on August 28, 2015 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Adam Bettcher—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 2, 2015 9:51 PM UTC Hillary Clinton’s $10 billion plan to combat drug and alcohol addiction announced Wednesday came about in part due to a simple question from a voter at an early New Hampshire event. Clinton was doing the second roundtable of her then-new campaign on April 20 when she heard from Pam Livengood, an employee at a local furniture factory. Livengood noted that her grandson’s mother had run into trouble with drugs. “We need to see more for substance abuse help in our area,” she said. “There’s very limited resources here. We’d like to see something in that respect. Do you have any further ideas?” Clinton responded that she was “really concerned” about the issue, a standard line from a candidate on the stump. But her campaign then developed a plan to fight drug addiction, announced Wednesday on on [Instagram](https://instagram.com/p/7ICp7aEPmN/?taken-by=hillaryclinton), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton/photos/a.889773484412515.1073741828.889307941125736/973422782714251/?type=1&theater), in a New Hampshire [op-ed](http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150901/OPINION02/150909909/1004/opinion) and a white paper, which the Clinton campaign says was largely spurred by questions from voters. “In state after state, this issue came up again and again — from so many people, from all walks of life, in small towns and big cities,” Clinton wrote Tuesday in an op-ed in the [New Hampshire Union-Leader](http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150901/OPINION02/150909909/1004/opinion). “It’s time we recognize as a nation that for too long, we have had a quiet epidemic on our hands.” Experts say the problem is not just anecdotal. Prescription painkiller overdoses more than quadrupled in the U.S. from 1999 to 2011, according to figures by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while heroin doses more than doubled. With an average of 110 deaths from drug overdoses (about 40,000 a year), deaths from drug abuse outnumber those caused by car accidents. Small towns and rural areas across the country have been particularly hard-hit. Clinton is not alone in becoming concerned about the issue, either. A bipartisan bill introduced in January by Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse would expand prevention and treatment programs and widen the use anti-overdose medication called naloxone. “This issue is not a partisan issue. Both sides of the aisle in Congress are very interested in this because its killing people back home,” said Nick Motu, vice president at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Institute for Recovery Advocacy. “We’ve seen this huge rapid spike in opioid deaths and heroin deaths. What you’re seeing from Clinton and what you’re seeing from others is that they’ve got to address addiction.” Clinton’s plan is not a particularly controversial one and it hews to a familiar pattern for her campaign so far of announcing crowd-pleasing policy proposals that are likely to pass in Congress. Her plan will include a $7.5 billion fund that rewards states with federal dollars for comprehensive plans state plans. States would draw up their own plans for drug education drug programs like after-school activities and mentorship programs as part of prevention efforts, as well as proposals for community-based health centers and greater investment in hospitals and other methods of treating addiction. Clinton’s plan would also ask states to divert money from the criminal justice system to local treatment programs and to restrict the prescription of opioid painkillers. The federal government would provide $4 for every $1 spent by the state. At the federal level, Clinton would increase grants for substance abuse treatment by $2.5 billion over 10 years and enforce federal laws that require insurers to provide treatment for addicts. In the presidential race, several candidates have also raised the issue of addressing drug abuse. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has also called for wider use of [naloxone](http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-cummings-urge-mayors-and-county-officials-to-combat-overcharging-for-critical-drug), and Republican contenders Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush and John Kasich have also said they would make addressing drug abuse a priority. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has set a goal of reducing deaths from drug overdoses by 25% by 2020, pointing to his record in Annapolis of increasing drug abuse services and expanding the use of naloxone. ## Transcript You know, I'm not sittin' here some little woman standing here by my man like Tammy Wynette. I'm sittin' here because I love him, and I respect him. Now is our chance to beat the historical odds, and give the American people the health security they need. If there is one message that echoes forth from this. Let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all. The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right- wing conspiracy that has been conspiring. Against my husband since the day he announced for president. I would be happy to, when you give me the signed letters. Well, right here. Right here. When you give me. Right here. Sign it right now. We'll shake. We'll shake on this, Ray. No, no, I want your signature, cause I think that everybody wants to see you signing something that you said you were for. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't wanna see us fall backwards. Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it. The battle to stop Al Qaeda and its affiliates. Does not end with one death. What difference, at this point, does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator. I took the unprecedented step of asking that the state department make all my work- related emails, [ MUSIC ] Public for everyone to see. 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