EUGENE, Ore. -- The Eugene City Council will take up at a later meeting the issue of whether addiction should be declared a public health crisis.

The issue was presented to the council during its meeting Monday night.

Mayor Lucy Vinis has been working with City Councilor Jennifer Yeh and Oregon Recovers to a create a resolution similar to other cities and counties in the state that would pressure lawmakers in Salem to take action to fight addiction.

Teri Morgan from Oregon Recovers said she is looking forward to the city council approving the resolution. “Well we're hoping that the city and county do adopt this resolution. We think that it's important they follow in the footsteps of other cities and counties throughout the state that have already done so,” Morgan said. “We understand these things take time and we're still hopeful that we're able to move forward.”

Oregon ranks fourth in the country for addiction but ranks last for access to treatment, and Oregon Recovers wants to change that. They want state lawmakers to take action on fighting the addiction crisis.

Tony Vezina, co-chair of Oregon Recovers, said the state tried to do something about addiction nearly a decade ago.

“The alcohol and drug policy commission has been around, oh god, for like nine years. So, it was developed by Attorney General John Kroger and it was supposed to create a plan and then track its progress every year since its inception and never did it,” Vezina said.