Rep. Antonio: Kasich should focus on Ohio's heroin emergency before sending manpower to North

Sate Rep. Nickie Antonio(D-Lakewood) today issued the following statement responding to Gov. John Kasich’s decision to send state highway patrol to help tamp down the growing controversy surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline:

“If the governor wants to truly be responsive to an emergency, he need not look beyond his home state. Communities across Ohio are in desperate need of additional resources to combat the growing opioid crisis that has already claimed an historic number of Ohio lives. First responders, treatment providers and local law enforcement have been stretched perilously thin by the opioid and heroin crisis, but so far the governor has refused to free up critical additional state resources by recognizing the crisis for the statewide emergency that it is.

“Instead, our governor sends dozens of state troopers 1200 miles away to defend the private property interests of a Fortune 500 natural gas cooperation against a race of people who have been systemically discriminated against and marginalized for centuries. Instead of recognizing the problem at our own doorstep, the governor shows that he eagerly awaits any opportunity to involve himself in matters in other states to keep his name alive without making difficult decisions at home.”