Submitted Article
Marc Friedenberg, candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District, will host a town hall to address opioid addiction in the area. The town hall will be held on Saturday, Sept. 8, from 2 to 3:30 pm at the Susquehanna County Library in Montrose, 458 High School Road. The town hall will give members of the public an opportunity to learn about the history of the opioid epidemic and about strategies to combat it.
“Throughout my campaign, this crisis has been one of the most common issues that voters want to talk about,” said Friedenberg. “The opioid epidemic is not a partisan issue, and it affects all of us. According to the CDC, more than 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017—double the number that died in 2007. Our current representative is unwilling, or unable, to solve the problem. We need real solutions; we don’t need politicians like Tom Marino who are more interested in cashing checks from Big Pharma than they are in helping Pennsylvanians. This town hall gives us a chance to try to move forward in a productive way.”
Friedenberg will be joined by experts who have fought on the front lines of the opioid crisis, including Judy Herschel, a drug and alcohol counselor. During one month in the summer of 2016, Judy lost eight of her clients to opioid overdoses. In announcing her support for the town hall, Herschel said, “Our community has been devastated by the opioid crisis. We must all work together in order for us to heal. We can’t continue to lose any more of our friends, family members or neighbors!”
All members of the public are welcome to attend, and to ask questions of Marc and the experts on the panel.