How We’re Working to Combat the Opioid Epidemic

Rep. French Hill

by Rep. French Hill: Across Arkansas, tearful families have told me their stories about how the opioid crisis has personally affected them. The drug epidemic is plaguing our nation and state. With the opioid epidemic causing over 45,000 deaths last year and killing more than 100 people a day – the time to act is now.

I recently hosted a summit entitled “Opioids in Our Community: Resources and Stories in Central Arkansas.” It featured citizens from across Arkansas and the United States to talk about the opioid crisis and how important it is for parents and families to coordinate with teachers, medical professionals, and federal, state, and local government officials and to remain vigilant.

A special thanks to Suzanne who bravely shared her story with us doing our opioid panel discussion. Her son, Nate, struggled with opioid addiction and eventually died after an overdose. She’s using her family’s tragedy as a way to help other families who have loved ones struggling with opioid addiction. Suzanne said that parent awareness is vital and that no one should be alone through the journey because without outside help, engagement, and action, more families will lose a loved one.

In the House this year, we’ve been successful in passing over 60 opioid-related bills that target the epidemic through various methods. This includes lifting the restriction on Medicaid reimbursement of inpatient substance abuse treatment and ensuring that health care professionals have access to a consenting patient’s complete medical history. This helps direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop best practices for ensuring prominent display of substance use disorder in medical records.

Complimentary to the package of opioid legislation I’ve supported in the House so far this year, I have introduced the Ending the Fentanyl Crisis Act. My bill lowers the weight of fentanyl necessary to trigger mandatory minimums, and would provide funding to the U.S. Postal Service to purchase chemical screening devices to detect and prevent fentanyl smuggling.

One gram of fentanyl (approximately the amount in a Sweet ’N Low packet) is enough to kill 500 people. Under current federal law, it takes 40 grams of a substance containing fentanyl to trigger a five-year mandatory minimum sentence – which is enough to kill 20,000 people.

The combination of a society already plagued drug addition, the increased availability of highly addictive opioids, and three decades of ineffective policies in the United States came together to create this deadly storm.

This generation of young adults has grown accustomed to learning of the overdose and suicides of classmates. They use gateway drugs like marijuana at alarmingly high rates and often progress to abusing prescription painkillers. When that’s not enough, they turn to heroin.

How are they getting these painkillers? Often, they start in their parents’ medicine cabinet where there is a plentiful supply. Doctors prescribe large quantities of painkillers for minor surgeries, and the unused pills are often forgotten about in medicine cabinets for years. When these pills don’t go unused, we have to be concerned about the development of addiction. According the National Institute on Drug Abuse, between eight and 12 percent of patients get prescribed opioids.

The National Safety Council stated that more than 70 percent of workplaces are being disrupted by opioids and that every day ninety Americans die from opioid overdose. A nation as developed as the United States should be able to prevent an epidemic like this from developing in the first place; however, due to three decades of failed behavioral health policies, we have not been able to do so.

Despite this important progress, the federal government cannot solve this problem on its own. Engagement on the state level is crucial to addressing this behavioral health epidemic. Every state needs a strategic plan encompassing mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse by youth, and preventable deaths by overdose and suicide.

While there is much work to be done, it is important to recognize the positive progress that the state of Arkansas is already making to combat these issues. The state legislature has instituted the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, a database that tracks the prescription of controlled substances in the state. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has led the charge in opening crisis stabilization units across the state in order to divert non-violent offenders who are experiencing mental health problems from jail. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has started Prescription for Life, a drug avoidance education initiative available to all Arkansas high schoolers to teach them about prescription drug misuse and abuse prevention.

I am committed to proposing legislation and fostering discussion that will take the necessary steps to stop this prescription drug abuse. We need to raise awareness to this crisis and take immediate action for the sake of our youth and for the sake of our country’s future.
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Rep. French Hill (@RepFrenchHill) , R-AR, represents Arkansas' second congressional district. He is majority whip on the House Committee on Financial Services. His article was provided to the ARRA News Service by French Hill's staff.

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