LYNN – Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo had warm words and friendly chides for the local business people and officials who came out to hear him speak Monday, while also touching on some serious subjects – namely, substance abuse.”This has been a time when I get more calls to get children into detox centers or halfway houses than I do to get them into colleges,” he said. “We’ve got to do something about that.”DeLeo was in town for a Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast held at St. Mary’s. He said he caught people off guard recently when he started speaking during a similar engagement on the budget but quickly swayed the discussion to what he believes is a major concern facing the state, substance abuse. What he calls an epidemic is not only costing the state money but it’s costing lives, he said.”I’ve never seen the type of epidemic we are facing as a commonwealth,” he said. “The death toll this is taking is alarming.”DeLeo said there is a bill in conference that calls for working with insurance companies to allow people seeking detoxification, for alcohol or substance abuse, to stay longer before being sent back out into society.”To get a person into a detox center to stay there for any period of time – it’s almost a luxury,” he said.He added that “we’re going at it full battle” on the state level to create more beds and more help to get people the care they need.During his hour-long address, DeLeo also touched on gun violence. He said he worked with gun owners and members of a coalition against gun violence and learned something interesting.”Their basic concept is the same, to keep guns out of the hands of the bad guys,” he said.How they got to that point, which included getting legislation into conference, was a very long effort, “but we got there,” he added.And he touted his efforts for job creation, investing in training programs for precision and advanced manufacturing and the fact that unemployment was down to 5.5 percent. He said he realizes it might be higher in more rural areas of the state, which is why he is continuing his push to create jobs.Jobs creation is also the reason he has always been solidly in support of casinos, he told the crowd of roughly 50.DeLeo also mentioned that tuition and fees at state universities and colleges were frozen this year and that the state is one in five across the country that has a stabilization fund.”Two of those states are Alaska and Texas, so we know where they got their head start,” he said. “So really we’re one of three, that tells you what we’re all about.”