When something is described as an "epidemic," some type of Congressional action is typically expected. It might not do much, but it's at least an acknowledgement that the problem deserves the attention of the nation's highest powers.
Two U.S. senators are calling on Congress to appropriate $600 million in emergency funds to combat heroin addiction, which has skyrocketed in recent years.
More died from drug overdoses in 2014 than any year in history, the Centers for Disease Control recently reported, and the mortality rate for young white adults has increased for the first time in a half-century as an apparent result of opioid addiction.
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"Congress needs to treat the heroin epidemic like the national public health emergency that it is," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire at a press conference with Sen. August King, I-Maine.
Last year, Shaheen told WMUR, a Boston TV station, that one person died of a drug overdose every day in New Hampshire.
"People in Maine and around the country are losing their lives, communities are being torn apart and first responders and health care providers are being pushed to the brink," King said, according to The Hill.
Of the $600 million called for in legislation that Shaheen authored last year, the majority — $375 million — would go to the Department of Health and Human Services to treat heroin and prescription drug addiction.
Another $225 million would go to the Department of Justice, to disperse to local police departments to spend on both treatment and enforcement initiatives.
In the context of both the federal budget and the multi-trillion dollar U.S. health care economy, $600 million is peanuts. But it's a start.
The appreciation of the heroin problem appears to be bipartisan, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, telling Yahoo News last week that the Senate will likely address Shaheen's bill soon.
"Certainly the heroin epidemic we will tackle, and tackle soon, in the Senate. It's a scourge all across the country," he said. "People running for president up in New Hampshire tell me — oddly enough, nobody would predict this — it's the No. 1 issue."
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