The problem - “The opiate addiction crisis exists in large part because our government thought it was okay for companies to make a lot of money prescribing addictive opiates to millions of people. This was a failure of government. And now the Federal Government must do all it can to address this crisis, including funding treatment for millions of Americans. There is a modern-day plague in America and we cannot rest until it is controlled and defeated". "Approximately 115 AMERICANS die each day from an opioid overdose. Many more struggle through addiction, including all the negative health and behavioral impacts that it entails. Nearly 220 MILLION prescriptions for opioids were written in 2016, despite the risks of these drugs being well known, and over 2.6 MILLION are addicted to opiates….Outside of the immediate health effects, drug trafficking and related crimes have sprung up in communities throughout America in order to cater to these addictions. And our country’s healthcare system, complicit in the creation of the crisis, hasn’t found a way to treat the outbreak."