April 19, 2018

"In 2015, Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.) had begun the fight against opioids as a member of Congress. A year later, her brother was entering the fight in a very different way.

He needed two hip replacements, a procedure that devolved into even more surgeries through the fall and winter. To alleviate the pain, his doctors prescribed high doses of painkillers.

“As the winter [of 2017] wore on, it became more and more obvious that my brother was experiencing substance use disorder, the misuse of medication that was associated with these high doses of opioid medications prescribed by his physician,” Kuster said."

By Rachel Rubein / The Hill