PREVIEW: “Battling The Opioid Crisis: Raising an Army”

“America consumes over 80% of the narcotics and we’re only 5% of the world’s population,” said Rep. Holly Rehder (R)-Sikeston. “So as a country, we’ve got to stop saying…’take away the pain, we don’t want to feel any pain.’ We need to look at this differently. We need to talk about it more.”

The law, state leaders and doctors agree the opioid epidemic has gotten increasingly worse over the past six months.

“We chose not to have resources to deal with this when it was predicted 10 years ago,” said Heather Harlan, a prevention specialist at Phoenix Health Programs. “We are now shoveling it up and paying the price.”

On Sunday, May 21, ABC 17’s Ashley Strohmier will show viewers why the opioid problem has gotten worse and how some think it could be turned around.

Watch “Battling the Opioid Crisis: Raising an Army” Sunday on ABC 17 News at 10 on KMIZ.