Michigan Targets Deadly Opioid Rise

By CHRIS EHRMANN/Associated Press

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan lawmakers are introducing legislation to help fight rising opioid abuse.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers is looking to tackle the drug epidemic in Michigan through a variety of ways, including health education in schools and creating prescription limits on opioids. They also are promoting the use of an updated database that monitors prescriptions.

Republican Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker of Lawton is sponsoring legislation aimed at requiring prescribers to use the updated system to obtain reports on patients' drug history and discipline prescribers who do not use it.

Democratic Sen. Steve Bieda of Warren has proposed legislation that would require a better physician-patient relationship before a drug is prescribed.

Bieda says the opioid epidemic issue is not a partisan issue and that everyone needs to come together to combat it.

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