Integrity published an investigation outlining how certain
pharmaceutical companies and their allies have adopted a 50-
state strategy that includes hundreds of lobbyists and nearly $1
billion spent on lobbying and campaign contributions from 2006
through 2015 to help kill or weaken measures aimed at stemming
the tide of prescription opioids; and
WHEREAS, In the 2014 National Drug Threat Assessment, the
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported that approximately 129
people die every day as a result of drug poisoning and more than
60% of those overdose deaths are due to pharmaceutical opioids
or are heroin related; and
WHEREAS, According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, in 2015, 52,000 people died from drug overdoses and
approximately two-thirds of them had used prescription opioids;
and
WHEREAS, Recent data for this Commonwealth shows 10,394,466
prescriptions for opioid medications were filled by individuals
in 2015; and
WHEREAS, In 2015, a report from the DEA identified 3,383
drug-related overdose deaths in this Commonwealth, an increase
of 23.4% over 2014; and
WHEREAS, This Commonwealth is in the midst of an opioid and
heroin epidemic causing thousands of overdose deaths and
destroying communities and families; and
WHEREAS, Opioid abuse causes a $78.5 billion loss to the
United States economy each year; and
WHEREAS, The financial toll this epidemic is having on the
limited resources of the Commonwealth is staggering; and
WHEREAS, States have historically filed lawsuits against
industries that engage in illegal business practices, such as
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