At the third Democratic debate on Saturday, all three presidential candidates called for smarter prescribing of painkillers as a way to combat a growing opioid and heroin epidemic in the United States.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said prescribers and drug companies “have to start getting their act together.” Hillary Clinton said “there are too many opioids being prescribed,” which pushes people to heroin. And Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, said simply, “We need to rein in overprescribing.”
The question about how to address the opioid crisis came the day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published data showing a record number of people died from heroin and opioid overdoses last year. The scourge has hit states such as Massachusetts and Vermont particularly hard.
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