Nation’s governors worried about opioid epidemic

DES MOINES - Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker says he is certain that if you put any 20 people in a room, at least one of them will have been directly impacted by opioid addiction.

In Iowa for this weekend's summer meeting of the National Governors Association, 16 governors on Friday gathered at the Iowa Events Center to discuss what their group calls one of the deadliest drug epidemics in U.S. history.

The rate of overdose deaths involving opioids - including heroin and prescription drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine - has nearly quadrupled in the United States, with overdoses resulting in 165,000 deaths, according to federal data.

More people died from drug overdoses in 2014 than any previous year, and overdose deaths have overtaken vehicle crashes as the nation's leading cause of death by injury, according to the governors' group.

'Our states and our country are in the midst of a heroin and opioid crisis that is the most serious public health and safety issue of our time,” New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan said. '(The epidemic) is devastating families and communities across our country.”

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who spoke with the governors' group Friday, described provisions in newly passed federal legislation that authorizes $900 million over five years for drug abuse prevention, education, treatment, recovery and law enforcement.

'This epidemic demands a comprehensive response,” Grassley told the governors. 'I hear from Iowans all the time, just like I'm sure you hear from your constituents, about real-life examples of how this epidemic is hitting home.”

Grassley talked about the advocacy done by a Davenport woman, Kim Brown, whose son, Andy Lamp, died from an accidental heroin overdose in 2011.

Brown advocated for a bill signed into law this year by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad that allows emergency responders to possess and administer naloxone, an opioid antagonist, to people who are experiencing an opioid overdose.

Branstad said he hopes Iowa lawmakers will consider requiring physicians to consult drug registries before prescribing opioid painkillers. The monitoring programs are designed to prevent individuals addicted to opioid painkillers from obtaining them from multiple doctors.

Sixteen states have such a requirement, according to Pew Charitable Trusts.

'I think it's something that we need to be looking at,” Branstad said. 'Hopefully, the Legislature will take a serious look at it.”

The governors' discussion also included U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and national experts in medicine, public health and law enforcement.