Representative Sharice Davids | Representative Sharice Davids Official Website (https://davids.house.gov)
Representative Sharice Davids | Representative Sharice Davids Official Website (https://davids.house.gov)
This week, Representative Sharice Davids joined local health care professionals, first responders, and law enforcement officials for her second summit regarding the growing threat of fentanyl, the number one cause of overdose death in the United States. The group discussed the challenges health care workers face when caring for fentanyl-related overdose patients and how Davids can better support their work in Congress. Davids’ first summit convened local, state, and federal law enforcement officials to discuss long-term solutions.
Davids’ conversation on the fentanyl epidemic made headlines across Kansas:
Shawnee Mission Post: “How the national fentanyl crisis is impacting Johnson County”
“U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids on Monday hosted a fentanyl summit with local health experts to learn how the fentanyl epidemic is impacting Johnson County and the rest of the Kansas Third District.
While the summit itself was closed to the public, Davids said the ‘shocking rise in opioid related deaths’ in the past decade spurred her office to bring stakeholders to the table, face the issues and brainstorm solutions.
‘This is happening across the country, and the Kansas City metro area, this part of our state and the entire state of Kansas is no exception to that,’ Davids said.
[…]
Davids said raising awareness is a big part of addressing the fentanyl crisis.
Other than the efforts to make naloxone more readily available, Congress can look into classifying fentanyl as a Schedule I drug, Davids added.
[…]
‘We’re losing too many people in general, we’re losing too many young people, we’re seeing too many accidental poisonings, we’re seeing too many lives upended and destroyed because of something, my hope is, that we can do much more to prevent and address,’ Davids said.”
“Representative Sharice Davids met with leaders at AdventHealth to talk about this [fentanyl] crisis and solutions.
[…]
Health experts that we heard from today t that roundtable said this really is no longer just a crisis, it’s now an epidemic. Meaning that it can really impact anyone and everyone across the country, and event right here in our community because of the prevalence of opioids like fentanyl.
[…]
The epidemic is impacting everyone across the board, it doesn’t matter whether it’s young people, older people, and that most overdoses are form people who are taking something that is laced with fentanyl and they don’t know it.”
“Kansas Representative Sharice Davids sat down with first responders and health care leaders for a fentanyl crisis roundtable summit this morning.
Davids discussed the impact of the opioid crisis on the health and safety of residents in Kansas’ Third District. She says her goal for this summit is to learn straight form the people who witness the effects of this drug on a daily basis.
‘There are a lot of people in our community who are working really, really hard to try to save as many lives as possible. When it comes to the fentanyl crisis that we’re facing, we’re losing too many people.”
“Congresswoman Sharice Davids hosted a roundtable discussion in Johnson County. She and health care leaders say many of the deaths involve someone that unknowingly took fentanyl.
‘We’re losing too many people in general. We’re losing too many young people. We’re seeing too many accidental poisonings. We’re seeing too many lives being upended and destroyed because of something that, my hope is, we can do much more to prevent and address.’
Davids is a member of the bipartisan fentanyl prevention caucus. She called on the FDA to make Narcan available over-the-counter, something the FDA later approved.”
Original source can be found here.
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