Friday, Indiana U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski applauded the passage of dozens of bills in the House aimed at fighting the opioid epidemic through prevention, treatment, recovery, and law enforcement efforts. Next week, the House will consider legislation Walorski introduced to improve access to non-opioid pain treatments. The bill is named for Dr. Todd Graham, the South Bend doctor who was shot to death after refusing to write a prescription for opioid painkillers.
The measures approved by the House include legislation to:
Crack down on the shipment of illicit synthetic opioids into the U.S. from overseas
-Prevent drug traffickers from circumventing the law by creating chemically-altered synthetic drugs
-Support transitional housing for individuals recovering from opioid addiction
-Help veterans access treatment for mental health or substance abuse issues
-Expand peer-to-peer counseling for women veterans
-Encourage innovative research into non-addictive pain medications
-And Reduce the number of unused prescription drugs at risk of misuse
Indiana’s unemployment rate stands at 3.2 percent for May and remains lower than the national rate of 3.8 percent. With the exception of one month when it was equal (October 2014), Indiana’s unemployment rate now has been below the U.S. rate for more than four years. The monthly unemployment rate is a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicator that reflects the number of unemployed people seeking employment within the prior four weeks as a percentage of the labor force. Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of 15,928 over the previous month. This was a result of a 2,659 increase in unemployed residents and an increase of 13,269 employed residents. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.33 million, and the state’s 64.3 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 62.7 percent. In addition, Indiana’s initial unemployment insurance claims continue to be at historical lows. Learn more about how unemployment rates are calculated here: http://www.hoosierdata.in.gov/infographics/employment-status.asp.