Issue Position: Opioid Crisis

Issue Position

The entire nation is dealing with an opioid epidemic brought on largely by over-prescription of pain medications. About 80% of all opioid addicts got hooked on the drugs while taking authorized medications. These addicts were not introduced to the drugs in back alleys -- they simply went to the pharmacist with a doctor's note.

In the legislature this year, we sought and received a waiver from the federal government to allow us to increase the number of beds in treatment facilities for addiction. Previously, they were only allowed to have 17 beds! We would need hundreds of facilities under that rule to address the need.

We also directed resources to end the open-air drug market in the Rio Grande area of Salt Lake, which had become an international embarrassment last summer.

Drug court works in helping people get their lives and families back.

Law Enforcement, including the Utah Highway Patrol, needs to continue its efforts to end drug trafficking through Utah, and we need to continue educating the public about the extreme danger posed by opioids.

If the FDA would approve a medical marijuana drug that alleviates pain in lieu of opioid drugs, that might help some people avoid addiction altogether, but I do not favor a home-grown marijuana industry in our state until the drugs can be dispensed through a traditional pharmacy .

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