Roy Blunt: “Today the Senate is taking a second step to deal with a public health crisis that is destroying lives and damaging…”

“Today the Senate is taking a second step to deal with a public health crisis that is destroying lives and damaging communities across the Nation, the epidemic of opioid and heroin abuse. Step 1 late last year was to reduce spending in other programs and increase the dollars available to deal with this addiction. An estimated 1.9 million American adults have an opioid-use addiction or disorder related to prescription drug pain relievers. Another 500,860 have an opioid-use disorder related to heroin. Some 2.5 million Americans are dealing with this problem. Our Nation's veterans are particularly at risk for developing a dependency on opioids. A study published in 2014 found a high prevalence of chronic pain among veterans because of their service. The chronic pain among veterans was 44 percent compared to 26 percent in the general public. There was a higher prevalence of opioid use, at 15.1 percent, in the U.S. military after a combat deployment, after possible injuries in training or injuries from an IED attack, compared to just 4 percent in the general public. In 2014, more than 1,000 Missourians died from an opioid overdose. In St. Louis alone, deaths related to opioid abuse have increased nearly three times since 2007. Member after member has come to the floor, just as they came to me last year as the chairman of the funding committee for health and human services and explained what a problem this is in their State.…”