MONTGOMERY ─ Earlier this week, the Governor’s Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council met to discuss reports from various stakeholders and committees, but there was also a special guest speaker. Daniel Blaney-Koen, senior legislative attorney from the American Medical Association, joined the task force to discuss what the AMA is doing nationally with policy interventions to try and reverse the opioid epidemic as well as its partnership with the Medical Association with the development and promotion of a toolkit to provide more educational material to Alabama’s physicians.

According to Blaney-Koen, opioid prescriptions are decreasing nationwide, and Alabama has beaten the national average in reducing the number of opioids prescribed.

“We want to emphasize solutions,” Blaney-Koen said. “I’d rather emphasize solutions that can change the course of this epidemic. We all want this epidemic to end, and there is hope for optimism that it will. The unmet needs for treatment are what will sustain this epidemic, so evidence-based care and treatment is where we need to put our focus.”