Sen. Kaine takes aim at prescription drug-abuse crisis in Southwest Va.
It wasn’t until a 2013 stop in Southwest Virginia that U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., realized the full magnitude of the prescription-drug abuse epidemic.
Kaine, also a former governor of Virginia, was prepared to talk about economic development as part of a round-table forum in Tazewell County. A few hours later he met with members of the Daily Telegraph’s editorial board. Kaine was surprised when both sessions ultimately turned into a prolonged discussion about the growing drug-abuse crisis in Southwest Virginia, and neighboring southern West Virginia.
“Well first I ought to give you credit because my interest in the opioid issue really stems from the opioid issue at your editorial board table in April 2013,” Kaine said in reference to the earlier meeting with Daily Telegraph Editor Samantha Perry and other members of the newspaper’s editorial board. “You kind of clued me into the challenges and I started to ask about it everywhere. I had an economic round table in Tazewell County before I visited with you, and had one in Abingdon, and people were talking about this problem. It’s not just opioid and heroin, but meth also continues to be a problem. But the opiod and heroine problem is the most intense.”
Since that time, Kaine has been working on the federal level to promote legislation dealing with the prescription drug-abuse epidemic. In recent weeks, he has been actively supporting the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a measure that passed the U.S. Senate last week by an overwhelming margin of 94-1. The proposed measure, which now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives, would provide more than $300 million over five years in federal grants to state and local programs aimed at strengthening treatment for addicts and expanding prevention efforts.
Kaine said he believes the bill has a good chance of passing the House, adding that House Speaker Paul Ryan has expressed interest in the measure.
“One of the challenges I definitely learned in the Senate is if you celebrate something when it passes the Senate, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will pass the House,” Kaine said. “But what I have learned is when something passes by an overwhelming margin it increases its chances.”
Kaine said the CARA measure includes a bipartisan amendment that he introduced to help protect seniors who are vulnerable to medication abuse. Kaine co-sponsored the amendment with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. It is based on legislation Kaine introduced last August called the Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act.
Kaine said the amendment authorizes Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription plans to utilize a patient review and restriction tool, or “lock-in” measure. This would help identify individuals at risk of addiction, connect them with resources, and restrict them to one pharmacy and one provider when accessing controlled substances.
“It’s a horrible scourge, and one of the things I’ve been sort of focused on since I got on the (Senate Special Committee on Aging) was the use of these opioids by seniors,” Kaine said. “As you know, one of the major causes for injury among seniors is falls.”
Kaine said some senior citizens are becoming addicted to the pain killers.
But the opioid-abuse problem has permeated all ages and aspects of society. In Virginia, the prescription drug-abuse crisis claimed more lives in 2014 than vehicle crashes. And while the problem is rampant in Southwest Virginia, Kaine said opioid abuse also is a significant problem across the state and nation.
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S., with 47,055 lethal drug overdoses in 2014.
Opioid addiction drove the epidemic, with 18,893 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 10,574 overdose deaths related to heroin. Heroin deaths also increased by 37 percent per year from 2010 to 2013.
Kaine, who spoke to the Daily Telegraph last week, also took a few moments to address the presidential campaign. In between his work in the U.S. Senate, Kaine also is traveling across the country in support of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Kaine admitted that he was surprised by the strong showing of public support to date for Bernie Sanders, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, and Donald Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination.
“I’m a strong supporter of Hillary because I think she is very well qualified to do a unique job in office,” Kaine said. But I’ll give Bernie credit. He’s run a superb race, and it has surprised me how many people have embraced his race.”
However, after the primary contests in Florida and Ohio are over Tuesday, Kaine expects Clinton to have enough delegates to effectively secure the Democratic nomination.
“I think after Tuesday it will be very plain that the drama will be out of it,” Kaine said of the Democratic-side of the presidential race. “But he has run a great race, and he’s spoken to a great sense of the anger people have felt about politics. These are sentiments we should take very seriously. But I know Bernie well enough and Hillary well enough to know at the end of the day that you have to be effective. I think Hillary is so much able to effectively govern and get things done. So I think her strength in the governing side is going to win out, and I think by Tuesday the drama about who the nominee will be will be over.”
Kaine said he — like so many others — figured the Trump campaign would not last long. But now it is looking increasingly likely that Trump will be unstoppable in the march to the Republican nomination.
But Kaine said Trump doesn’t seem to reflect the traditional faith and values of the Republican Party. He is also questioning many of the controversial proposals Trump has made on the campaign trail.
