Citizens are converging on the State Capitol for Opioid Awareness Day which includes legislative hearings and a rally. Former D-E-A Agent Joe Rannazzisi, a national figure in the battle, gives thumbs-up to a bill that would tax drug manufacturers and distributors a penny-per-pill for programs to fight opioid addiction. He told a Senate committee Wednesday afternoon, “Hopefully some other states will look at you guys and say, hey, this is what we need to do and this is where we’ll be going.”
Rannazzisi testified on what he says is the role the pharmaceutical industry played in the opioid epidemic by misrepresenting that the drugs are not addictive. “The information was not based in evidence. It was based in, what? It was based on anecdotal information that was never really peer-reviewed and wasn’t scientific, validly scientific,” he says.
A number of Minnesota county attorneys have filed lawsuits seeking damages.