Upton Comments on Administration's New Opioid Initiatives

Statement

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) issued the following statement on the administration's latest efforts to combat the growing opioid epidemic:

"No community is immune from the ongoing opioid epidemic -- sadly, it's everywhere. To put the magnitude of the problem into perspective, in 2012, opioid prescriptions astoundingly outpaced the number of U.S. adults by 20 million. As we've said, it must be an all hands on deck effort. I appreciate the administration's recent steps, and look forward to reviewing these new proposals. We've held a number of hearings with testimony from many experts on the frontlines, and have advanced bipartisan solutions to protect infants and promote state prescription drug monitoring programs. In the coming weeks the committee will continue our bipartisan efforts to achieve meaningful solutions. Working together, we will take important strides to help those suffering in our communities."

In December 2015, Upton highlighted the committee's work to address the growing epidemic of opioid abuse in a piece in The Detroit News entitled, "We can't arrest our way out of opioid epidemic."

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