Powerful opioid painkillers like OxyContin, Vicodin and fentanyl have become a significant part of Idaho’s medical landscape over the last decade, with doctors issuing enough opioid prescriptions past year to put the drugs in the hands of three out of four Idahoans.
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Lawmakers in Washington state get a huge chunk of their campaign cash from donors with ties to the prescription painkiller business.
But Oregon isn’t alone. Yet from 2006 through 2015, the AP and Center for Public Integrity found that participants in the Pain Care Forum spent over $740 million lobbying in the nation’s capital and in all 50 statehouses on an array of issues that included opioid-related measures.
By comparison, groups advocating for limits on opioid prescriptions spent about $4 million nationwide.
DRUG LOBBYISTS: There have been about 19 lobbyists hired each year for the past decade to represent members of the Pain Care Forum in Nevada. Major drugmakers have launched initiatives to, among other things, encourage more cautious prescribing, allow states to share databases of prescriptions, and help stop drug dealers from obtaining tablets.
In Utah, more than 4,600 people have died from drug overdoses over the past decade. That’s the equivalent of.83 prescriptions per person. The state’s drug deaths increased 18 percent between 2006 and 2014, with a total of 5,007 during that period.
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While opioids are critical for cancer patients and those in terminal pain, opioid abuse, including heroin and prescription drugs has been called the worst drug epidemic in American history.
