Walden Puts Focus on Opioid Epidemic

Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

On Tuesday, Congressman Greg Walden held a roundtable discussion with health care professionals at Good Shepherd Medical Center.

“We worked hard on fighting methamphetamines and now we’re on to something that is as bad or worse,” Walden said. “There’s been an epidemic in use.”

According to the CDC, the increase in unintentional drug overdose death rates in recent years has been driven by increased use of a class of prescription drugs called opioid analgesics. Since 2003, more overdose deaths have involved opioid analgesics than heroin and cocaine combined.

Walden said 100 million opioid pills are prescribed each year in the United States – double the number prescribed in 2000. As many as 15,000 to 19,000 people die from opioid overdoses each year.

Walden talked about legislation designed to address the crisis. Among the bills before the Congress are those which would address overprescribing of pills. Many people are prescribed doses of up to 90 pain killer pills after a minor procedure when they might only need a small handful. Allowing smaller, partial prescriptions would avoid folks from having unused opioids in their homes. Other bills would make access to treatment easier, as well as making opioid reversal drugs accessible to more people.

“This has really taken off and its not a good thing,” Walden said about the opioid epidemic.