An editorial from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — Let’s face it. Tax increases aren’t popular, not in Washington, Richmond or Charleston. And many folks in our region are certainly opposed to any such increase. But legislation introduced last week by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and six other mostly Democratic lawmakers, is a tax increase we can live with.
The LifeBOAT (Budgeting for Opioid Addiction Treatment) Act would establish a 1-cent fee on each milligram of active opioid ingredient in a prescription pain pill to fund efforts to provide and expand access to substance abuse treatment centers for those individual who are suffering from the chains of opiate addiction.
One penny is a small price to pay to help fund existing substance abuse treatment centers and build new ones.
“For alcohol, there’s tax. For cigarettes, there’s tax,” Manchin said last week. “We know there’s harm, but there’s nothing with opiates…