Holds office U.S. Senate
2017: Claims about fentanyl being laced in marijuana
"Drug traffickers are lacing other drugs with it. I was told by the DART Task Force in Toledo that they're actually sprinkling fentanyl in marijuana now, and people are showing up in the emergency room and overdosing on marijuana because it's sprinkled with fentanyl. It's more addictive, so the traffickers like it."
6/21/17
https://merryjane.com/news/ohio-senator-rob-portman-marijuana-fentanyl
"Portman, who like many of his generation has admitted to smoking marijuana in his youth, said he does not support legalization. Instead, he said, efforts should focus on drug prevention and rehabilitation. He mentioned his ongoing efforts to support drug prevention and recovery through the Drug-Free Communities Act."What I support is a whole different approach with regard to drug use, and that is spending less money on the prosecution and incarceration side and more money on prevention and education, which I know works."
He said a community-wide coalition he started about 20 years ago, focusing on drug abuse in his hometown of Cincinnati (which he represented in the House of Representatives), "has had great success, and relative to other areas that don't have coalitions, these coalitions are doing a great job." The Drug-Free Communities Act, for which which Portman is trying to get congressional reauthorization, has helped establish about 2,000 such coalitions, Portman said."So that's the approach that I think we ought to be taking," he said.
Legalizing marijuana "is the wrong message to send," he said, "and instead I think we should be focused more on prevention and education. I know it works."
As for his own pot smoking, Portman told The Plain Dealer in 2005 that it occurred when he was in school. "This was an era when almost everybody did it," the senator, now 59, said. "It's something I regret." 5/15/2015
"I'm very concerned about this," Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said of Issue 3. With the heroin epidemic ravaging Ohio, Portman said, "we should not be sending the message to our young people that this is somehow socially acceptable" to use drugs.Portman said the 10-farm limit on commercial cultivation makes Issue 3 even more objectionable. "I don't understand why the voters of Ohio should be giving certain private entities the ability to corner the market on anything," Portman said. "That's just wrong." 9/13/2015 http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/elections/2015/09/13/ohio-delegation-hot-pot-legalization/72067198/
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