U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand delivered a speech on the Senate floor today urging Congress to pass her bipartisan legislation to help combat the opioid epidemic. Senators Gillibrand and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) introduced the Preventing Overprescribing for Pain Act as an amendment to the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a bill the Senate is considering this week.
Senator Gillibrand’s legislation would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue guidelines for the safe prescribing of opioids for the treatment of acute pain.
The CDC is currently only focused on guidelines for opioids prescribed to treat chronic pain. However, many individuals become addicted to opioids after taking prescriptions for acute pain. Acute pain includes pain following a broken bone, wisdom tooth extraction, or other surgeries, whereas chronic pain is long-term pain that can last weeks, months, or years
Check out her speech:
[youtube id=”ArI24nm-6Bo”]
