 Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to address a joint session of the legislature Working together. We have had great success in moving Pennsylvania forward, but we still have a lot of work to do. I Am grateful to President scornati to Speaker Terzai leaders Corman and Reed and Dermotty and Costa for your willingness to make the fight against opioid addiction a priority and For your work in the past to address this crisis The Center for rural Pennsylvania chaired by Senator Jean Yaw has worked on solutions to this opioid epidemic since 2014 The work the Center has undertaken has positioned many pieces of legislation for passage that we can now finalize Senator Wozniak and representatives Gvulich and Everett have also been strong voices in this effort I'm also thankful to the chairs of the Hope Caucus representatives Ed Ganey and Aaron Koffer As well as Senators Jean Yaw and Jay Costa for their laser focus on fighting this opioid epidemic in communities throughout, Pennsylvania I'd also like to acknowledge Representative Jean DeGirolamo for his passion and his work to fight addiction Thank you Many members here have provided thoughtful legislation and innovative ideas to fight opioid addiction We are all aware of the opioid epidemic facing, Pennsylvania a public health crisis the likes of which we have not before seen Every day we lose 10 Pennsylvanians to the disease of opioid addiction This disease does not have compassion or show regard for status gender race or borders it affects each and every Pennsylvania and threatens entire communities throughout our commonwealth The disease of addiction has taken thousands of our friends and family members in the past year alone We have lost over 35 hundred Pennsylvanians a thousand more lives than the year before And we are not alone According to the Centers for Disease Control prescription opioid overdose deaths in the United States have quadrupled since 1999 Families have identified loved ones people have buried their childhood friends It's a crisis that has been building for years right here in, Pennsylvania and again all across the country Addiction too often is an invisible problem people with substance use disorders and their families They fear the stigma of addiction which keeps them isolated and unwilling to ask for help And the consequences therefore fall to law enforcement to jails and prisons and to understaff treatment centers But in Pennsylvania the problem is visible in many ways it's visible in the lives lost the family's broken in the communities that have been shaken It's visible because parents have come to us every single one of us asking for help It's visible because the members of this building listened and made the fight against opioid addiction a priority right here in Harrisburg And because you have brought the voices of your constituents here It is now possible for us to fight this this scourge with every tool we have and that's what we're going to do We are going to take a stand against the vicious disease of opioid addiction This past year has moved from conflict to civility We have achieved some very good things working together and while achieving these things We have made fighting the opioid epidemic a top priority And I've traveled the commonwealth with Republicans and Democrats We've listened to our fellow Pennsylvanians. We've all held parents hands as they've cried We've hugged those in recovery who've risen above the disease And we've heard their stories Parents and those suffering from the disease of addiction have broken down telling us about the difficulty of finding treatment options We heard them So together in this year's budget we increase funding for treatment centers by more than 20 million dollars That will create 45 centers for treatment allowing nearly 11,000 Pennsylvanians to receive care These centers integrate behavioral health primary care and when appropriate evidence-based medication assisted treatment and By expanding Medicaid to provide nearly seven hundred thousand Pennsylvanians with health care We've also provided treatment to sixty three thousand Pennsylvanians Battling the disease of addiction who previously did not have access to care We're doing more to treat this like the public health crisis it is Doctors and other medical professionals have voiced frustration at the inability to find centralized prescription information We heard them So together we redesigned the prescription drug monitoring program a database created by the Legislatures through a bill authored by senator Pat Vance The online database allows Prescribers and pharmacists to monitor who is obtaining opioids and where and how often they were prescribed This critical tool will support professionals in identifying patients Struggling with the disease of addiction and get them the help they need Police and first responders well, they asked for more tools to save people we heard them too So together we have made opioid overdose reversal antidote naloxone Available to Pennsylvanians including local police departments Last year physician general dr. Rachel Levine signed an order enabling all Pennsylvanians to access naloxone without a prescription at their local pharmacy and Since November November of 2014 more than 1500 opioid overdoses had been reversed by local and state police officers As your district attorney Tom Carney said of law enforcement officials This disease was not their public health issue But many of them made it their fight and for that we owe them a great debt of gratitude Ordinary Pennsylvanians wanted to know how they could help we heard them So together we're helping communities properly dispose of unused and unwanted prescriptions through a drug take-back program There are nearly 520 take-back boxes located at police stations all across Pennsylvania and we have collected and destroyed over 145,000 pounds of prescription drugs including opioids together together We have taken important steps to stop this crisis in Pennsylvania, but we have more to do Over the past six months. I've sat with many of you in round tables with families Law enforcement and medical professionals to discuss the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania But in addition to the stories we have heard Every one of us is likely to have a personal story. They can recount by heart And so many of these stories are the same no matter how different the storytellers are Just a few weeks ago. I was chatting with a friend who asked me if he could give me a letter I asked if he just wanted to talk But he had trouble composing his words When he gave me the letter I was surprised to learn that his own child had recently died from the disease of addiction He was heartbroken But he thanked all of us for the work we've done to help people suffering from the disease of addiction and he implored us to do more This is one example of the far-reaching effects of the opioid crisis This crisis again reaches into every population. It reaches into every age group and every kind of family It is our job to make sure no families have to write these letters or bear this pain ever again We must address this epidemic, but how can we make the biggest difference in the short time we have left this year? We should not place limitations on what we can achieve in this session. We all have our priorities and we all want action But I want to talk about several bills that have already been introduced and discussed and in some cases even passed by one of the Chambers here We need to get them to my desk so that I can sign them and we can make progress more progress in this fight If we continue to work together, we can fight back against this epidemic in a very effective way We must act now. Many Pennsylvania families are counting on us. So first Physicians should check the Commonwealth's prescription drug monitoring program each time they prescribe opioids and other controlled substances Our current law is not strong enough It only requires doctors to check the system the first time they prescribe to a patient or if they believe a patient is suffering from the disease of addiction Pharmacists should enter data into the database within 24 hours of issuing a prescription rather than the current 72 hours Strengthening program requirements is imperative in helping doctors and Pharmacists identify whether patients or doctor shopping or other doctors are over prescribing patients State officials also need the tools to identify inappropriate prescribing and dispensing practices among healthcare providers to better crack down on abuse second Let's prepare doctors and physicians for prescribing opioids and pain management by improving medical school and continuing education Curricula on opioids this will give doctors the knowledge and best practices needed to tailor their clinical skills To identify signs of addiction and provide patients with the information to avoid abuse or engage in meaningful treatment if they become addicted Third Let's limit the amount of opioids a patient can receive at emergency rooms at to a seven-day supply with no refills And we should put the same restriction in place for minors no matter where they get a prescription We've all heard too many stories too many horror stories about high school athletes whose futures are robbed by addiction that begins with prescription pain killers of Of course those suffering from crippling pain need relief And we must be careful to protect the ability of sufferers of long-term pain or victims of trauma to receive appropriate medication Fourth let's require insurance companies to cover abuse deterrent opioids similar to what they already have in Massachusetts This will make it more difficult to abuse prescription drugs While many people become addicted simply by swallowing pills others crush pills to snort or smoke Drug manufacturers are rapidly developing new technologies to prevent this kind of abuse Some of these drugs are uncrushable even with a hammer while others are formulated with naloxone so that the more an individual takes The less effective it is in creating a high and limiting the potential for overdose Others turn into a gel when they're crushed making them impossible to put into a syringe to inject These deterrent measured measures if crafted properly can be important tools against intentional or unintentional abuse or overdose Lastly several new bills deserve our consideration two bills requires schools to teach students about opioid misuse in Existing drug and alcohol abuse curricula Another bill would allow patients to establish a voluntary Directive if they do not want to be prescribed opioids The point is that the time for action is now as Many have noted and as I said earlier 3500 Pennsylvanians lost their lives to addiction in 2015 alone That means that each year we're losing the population of Parkesburg Freeland or Mifflinburg to the disease of addiction and each year those numbers grow The opioid epidemic did not start overnight and we will not fix it overnight or even in this session But by acting on these bills and by putting other ideas on the table We can continue to stem the tide of opioid abuse in Pennsylvania We can make progress for the families we've met the parents who have cried on our shoulders here in this building We can make a difference right now with bills that are close to passage In my inaugural address I acknowledged that some people out there feel indifference toward their government in The past two years we haven't always improved that that perception But in the past several months, we've solved some big problems here working together Many of these issues have vexed Pennsylvania's elected leaders for generations It's a start and we have more work to do But with the most Republican legislature in modern history and a Democratic governor We've balanced the budget. We've increased education funding. We've passed a fair funding formula We've brought medical marijuana to suffering kids and we've reformed the liquor system The magnitude of the opioid crisis threatens to cast a shadow over all of these important Accomplishments and everything else we work to achieve in this building But it's also a calling to use our time and our energy to fix a problem touching far too many Pennsylvanians The crisis calls on us to cast aside partisanship once again It calls on us to reject cynicism once again. It calls on us to take action once again Families in Philadelphia and Brockway and Indiana and Allegheny County and State College in Mount Wolf and all across Pennsylvania are calling on us to act We have shown that we can work together to make Pennsylvania the great place. We know it can be It's now time to do that again and give the people of Pennsylvania a reason to believe in their leaders It's up to us to tackle the opioid crisis and give Pennsylvania the prosperous Healthy and safe future. We know it deserves. I look forward to a productive session and real progress towards stopping the opioid epidemic Let us here in Pennsylvania lead the nation in fighting this crisis. Let's guess get this done. Thank you very much