Last week, President Barack Obama and his administration began taking proactive action to develop a legislation that will fight the U.S. opioid epidemic, a fight which the bipartisan House Energy and Commerce Committee has already started.
After the legislation passed House and Senate, Obama signed it into action last week. With the president's signature, the legislation will implement more than a dozen bills from the Energy and Commerce Committee. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the committee, stated that this finalized legislation is the nation’s comprehensive opioid package.
The goal of the legislation is to decrease the number of deaths from opioid abuse. This Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act is meant to improve options for treatments, help infants who are born to addiction and raise the state prescription monitoring program rates. The bill seeks to focus on treating addiction and overdoses, collaborating with law enforcement and changing prescribing practices -- just the beginning steps of ending the epidemic.
“For folks suffering in Michigan and across America who are desperate for relief, help is on the way,” Upton said.
Michigan has 10 times more related deaths today than 15 years ago, and the numbers are rising steadily. This is evidence that there are no boundaries or limits to the ongoing opioid epidemic sweeping the U.S.; the epidemic has become a national health crisis.
