There is a plague that continues to spread across the district, state, and nation.  Opioid abuse has increased exponentially over the last decade and I have made it a top priority to stop the spread of this epidemic.

This isn’t a problem that just pops up in urban areas and big cities.  It touches those who live in small towns and rural areas.  I have seen what it can do to families and communities across our district.  Many times, you don’t know that someone has a problem with pain medication until it is too late.  When someone is prescribed a pain medication like oxycodone, they can become addicted in a very short amount of time.  After someone is hooked, it isn’t a very big jump to drugs like heroin.  

Drug abuse, prescription or not, can be fatal.  In 2014, there were over 28,000 opioid related drug overdose deaths in the U.S.  And the largest group killed may be surprising to some.  It isn’t kids.  It is women ages 45 to 54.  In Oklahoma during that same time, more people died as a result of opioids than died in car wrecks.  That is staggering to me.  In 2014, Oklahoma had the tenth highest drug overdose death rate in the nation.  That is just unacceptable to me.

I have supported legislation to combat this growing problem.  As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I helped with bipartisan legislation targeted at reducing the amount of drug-related deaths in America. I supported an amendment to ensure that the Attorney General considers the needs of Native American, rural and heavily impacted communities in awarding grants. That bill package was combined with the Senate’s version in conference, and finally made it to the President’s desk.  It was signed into law July 22^nd.

But that isn’t the end of the fight.  There is still more work to be done, both here in the district and across the state.  That is why I am going to continue to meet with community leaders to talk about the way forward.  I will talk with veterans groups and tribal leaders, doctors and patients, whoever can help shed light onto the issue so we can come up with a way to defeat it, and still allow those who legitimately need the medication to have access to it.

###