Bipartisan report shows petition to combat the opioid crisis

Congressman Fred Upton discussed a new bipartisan report that contains plans on how the country could combat the opioid crisis in the US.

Upton shared that an active commission is taking on the crisis by recommending actions to block the flow of fentanyl to the US from China and Mexico.

"These ingredients are coming from China. They're now going into Mexico. The folks running the cartels are putting all the work together and all of a sudden, bingo. It comes across the border and it infects literally every state,” said Congressman Upton.

The overall cost of the crisis to the American society is estimated to be about $1 trillion.

Synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl, account for nearly 67 percent of the record 100,000 overdose deaths from June 2020 to June 2021. That number is up 30 percent from the previous year, according to the CDC.

Fentanyl is now being added to other street drugs such as heroin, meth, cocaine and marijuana.

Upton says that the federal government is working to develop new painkillers that have no addictive side effects that can replace opioids in the future.