WASHINGTON – Throughout the previous month, congressmen have put partisan variations apart to move a huge bundle of payments geared toward ending the rising opioid disaster affecting almost each district in America.
"This is a national crisis right now. Every member has stories from their district," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), House Republican Conference chair, instructed CBN News.
"I have a friend who was in a skiing accident and now she's addicted, has lost her kids, addicted to heroin – and this is just one example," continued McMorris Rodgers.
In the previous few weeks, the House handed shut to 60 bipartisan payments tied to opioids. They're concentrating on the issue from a number of sides, from stopping dependancy to increasing entry to therapy.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), the one former pharmacist in Congress, tells CBN News that is a difficult scenario.
"There's no one solution to this problem. This is an epidemic. It's killing 115 Americans every day," stated Carter.
Carter is energetic within the legislative course of, and he is launched three of the payments himself. One invoice he is sponsoring provides pharmacists instruments to establish fraudulent prescriptions, however he cautions Congress in opposition to overreacting and punishing these following the foundations.
"As a pharmacist, the only thing worse than me filling a prescription that's going to be diverted or abused is not filling a prescription for someone who truly needed that medication," defined Carter.
The Georgia lawmaker additionally warns in regards to the want to shut a large hole within the drugs physicians can prescribe.
"Once you get past ibuprofen and acetaminophen and tramadol, then you jump to the opioids and that's a big gap in between those two," continued Carter. "We need the pharmaceutical doctors who have worked miracles through research and development; we need them to come up with some alternatives for us."
He tells CBN News he is happy with the sturdy bipartisan effort within the House – and hopes the Senate will act quickly on this disaster.
"This is something that needs to be addressed immediately. The sooner the better," warned Carter.
President Donald Trump's administration is strongly supportive of the legislative efforts to tackle the disaster and has arrange a commission to fight drug dependancy and the opioid disaster.
"My administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need," stated Trump.