Joe Pyrah and Heidi Toth - Daily Herald | Posted: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 12:45 amMore than 4,000 people are admitted to the emergency room every year with a prescription drug overdose, says one Utah County lawmaker, and it's time to put an end to it.
"Even if it was an accident, if there was an overdose, there's a problem there," said Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem.
Daw is running a trio of bills targeting prescription drug abuse, a growing problem in Utah and specifically Utah Valley. His bills would require the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing to send notification to a doctor anytime someone went to the ER on an overdose or was arrested for DUI involving prescription drugs. -- Read More
And from Brad to his constituents (that would be us), he emailed on January 23, 2010:
Dear Neighbor,
This coming Monday, January 25th, the 2010 session of the Utah State Legislature will begin. The session will last for 45 days ending on March 11th. I will be sending you weekly updates to keep you informed on the activities of the legislature. Additionally, during this time, I invite you to e-mail me with your comments and concerns; I would love to hear from you and will take all input with the utmost consideration.
During this session I am sponsoring three main bills that involve prescription drug abuse. They all deal with helping to educate and inform those that write the prescriptions. Hopefully, through this heightened awareness, preventative measures can be taken to reduce the number of unnecessary deaths resulting from prescription drug abuse. If you wish to follow these bills during the times of the session, you can find them on the quick bill search on le.utah.gov. You can also see what these bills are about by clicking on the following links: HB 28, HB 35, HB 36.
Another piece of legislation you may be interested in coming to the floor this session is an ethics bill. A great article describing this bill can be found on the Deseret News [website.]
On the national front, some interesting events have happened as of late involving national health care reform. Scott Brown, Republican, landed the Massachusetts’ senate seat, thus representing the 41st vote in the senate against the health care bill. The LA Times summarizes the situation in the following paragraph:
“To many Democrats, the bill is a victim of simple math. All 435 members of the House and one-third of the Senate are up for reelection in November, a fact that makes them acutely tuned to shifts in public opinion. With Brown campaigning . . . against healthcare in the Senate, they're not sure they want to risk their own political necks for a proposal that is spurring a huge voter backlash.” (Does Scott Brown’s Election Doom Healthcare?)
Other insighful articles on this topic can be found at Newsmax - Scott Brown Win Is a Wake-Up Call, and the Daily Caller: What’s next for health-care reform? We are currently diligently working in the state of Utah on reform that empowers consumers to make their own health care decisions as opposed to reform that enables the government to have that right.
Once again, I welcome your comments and concerns and invite you to visit me at the capital during the session. Thank you for your support and I promise to do all that I can to make this 2010 session the best one yet in representing the needs of our district.
Brad Daw
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