Mayor Kenney Convenes Task Force To Combat Opioid Addiction
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Curbing prescriptions for painkillers is at the top of the agenda for the newly-convened Mayor's Task Force to Combat the Opioid Epidemic. The task force met for the first time on Wednesday.
While federal officials at the first meeting explained Philadelphia's generational addiction problem, its long-standing access to cheap, high-quality heroin, the mayor says recent increases, including an unprecedented spike in overdose deaths last month, can be attributed, at least in part, to over-prescription of addictive painkillers.
"The worst part about this from my perspective is, I have doctors who swore an oath to take care of people and are overprescribing medication because they're greedy," Kenney said. "A major effort on my part is to expose those folks and to stop them from doing this because I think they need to be held on the carpet and called to account for what they're doing."
Health Commissioner Thomas Farley says the task force will deliver its report in 90 days, highlighting the urgency of the problem.
"There are absolutely things we can do to turn this around," Farley said.
The task force will meet twice a month until its final report in April, which it promises will include a manageable slate of recommendations and a road map for instituting them.
