Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine’s 2nd District told the House Commerce Committee Wednesday that more needs to be done to combat that nation’s drug crisis.
Poliquin told the panel Maine is suffering a death about every day from drug overdoses.
“There was a recent study that said 6 out of 10 families in our great state — 6 out of 10 Mr. Chairman — are impacted directly or indirectly by this epidemic, including, I might add, my own family,” he said.
Poliquin called for prosecution of makers of illegal synthetic drugs and held up Maine’s prescription drug monitoring program as a model for the country.
“It mandates the use of this system by prescribers, and if you are prescribing opiates in the state of Maine, you must check this database on a regular basis,” he said.
