U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) was in Toledo today to generate support for a bill he’s co-sponsoring that would make it easier to give anti-addiction medication to help heroin users break their heroin habit.

The bill, still awaiting action in the Senate, would increase the number of patients who would be able to get methadone medication to help them break their drug habits in response to demand from opiate abuse.

Senator Brown is co-sponsoring the Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment Act, and said he’s looking for bipartisan support in the Senate and the House.

Former heroin addict Tiffany Brackett, 27, of Toledo, told guests and the media at a news conference in the Zepf Center downtown that medication was an important part of her kicking heroin.

She said she started as a teen using pain pills and eventually turned to injecting heroin with a needle.

“I woke up one day and I literally had nothing,” Ms. Brackett said. She took the drug Suboxone for five years, eventually weaning off of it. Today, she is married with a son and has a management position in a supermarket.

She said she spoke at Senator Brown’s news conference because she wants the drug treatment to be available to help more addicts the way it helped her.

According to Senator Brown, 1,914 Ohio residents died from accidental drug overdose in 2012.

At present, only doctors can administer the drug and can accept only 30 patients in their first year and no more than 100 after applying for approval after the first year. The legislation would increase the first-year limit to 100 and allow for unlimited treatment after further approval, and it would allow physicians assistants and nurse practitioners in some cases to prescribe the drug.

Senator Brown said the restrictions were put in place to prevent prescription drug abuse, but he believes the abuse can be controlled. The law has licensing and training requirements.

— Tom Troy

First Published December 1, 2014, 5:42 p.m.