One Wisconsin Now Statements on GOP Addiction to Big Pharma Money

MADISON, Wis. — One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross released the following statements about Gov. Scott Walker calling for a special session of the already-in-session Wisconsin state legislature to discuss opioid addiction.

Ross noted Walker was not only the key architect of “criminalizing addiction” while serving as chair of the State Assembly Corrections Committee in the 1990s, but also has spent this decade fighting against getting people access to health care for issues like addiction.

“Scott Walker spent the 1990s criminalizing addiction and the 2000s preventing people from getting the health care they needed to treat their addiction.

“He’s cut state funding for drug treatment and opposed laws that have helped people get their addiction treatment covered by health insurance.

“Gov. Walker is not only the head of the Republicans Governors Association, which has among its top contributors big pharma, but the RGA has pumped over $10 million into Scott Walker’s three campaigns for governor.

“We won’t be able to deal with opioid crisis until Gov. Walker’s political party ends its addiction to big pharma campaign money. On the Republican reliance on pharmaceutical dollars, you can’t just treat the symptoms, you have to cure the disease.”

Ross included a recent report on how the pharmaceutical industry flooded rural areas with opioids.