Opioid crisis takes focus of Rep. Angie Craig's Cottage Grove town hall
COTTAGE GROVE, Minn. -- It kills hundreds of Minnesotans each year, and numbers show it's only getting worse.
The latest statistics show opioid overdoses took 978 lives in Minnesota back in 2021. That more than doubled in two years.
Now, some Minnesotans say they want their Congresswoman to do more to fight this crisis. They spoke with DFL Rep. Angie Craig in Cottage Grove Monday night.
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Bridgette Norring's son Devin died in April 2020.
"Anytime there's anything happy in life, there's always that dark shadow cloud looming above because there's a part missing in our family," Norring said.
Norring said the 19-year-old had a cracked molar and migraines, but COVID lockdowns canceled his dental appointments. Devin's friend said he could help him find a painkiller. It only took one pill.
"And that Percocet was purchased via Snapchat, turned out to be 100% fentanyl," Norring said. "We thought we had all the talks with Devin, all my children about the drugs out there, the dangers on social media. This is a talk we missed, unfortunately."
Norring was not going to miss Monday night's town hall with Rep. Craig. She said she's met with her before, and her lobbying continues now for better access to the lifesaving drug Narcan, plus better access to medical care, especially in rural areas.
"It's a really big, multifaceted issue," Norring said.
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The Congresswoman expressed support for all those ideas during the town hall, while also vowing to work with Republicans on bigger and broader goals.
"We have to make sure that this stuff stops coming into our ports of entry. We have to do everything we can to stop it coming in," Craig said.
As politics works on its own clock, Norring just hopes it can somehow move fast enough to prevent the next tragedy.
"It can very easily happen to your kid. It happened to mine," she said.
Craig also answered questions Monday night about abortion, Ukraine, and many other hot-button issues. She plans to hold town halls again in July and August.
