Sandoval’s prescription drug abuse summit begins Wednesday

This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. With an overdose epidemic worsening, nearly one-third of Medicare beneficiaries received at least one prescription for commonly abused opioids such as OxyContin and fentanyl in 2015. (Toby Talbot, File/AP)

Gov. Brian Sandoval has called physicians, politicians and law enforcement officials to a summit meeting this week to address the national opioid epidemic’s impact on Nevada.

The Prescription Drug Abuse Summit on Wednesday and Thursday at the MGM Grand will focus on issues that include oversight of pain management clinics, physicians’ drug prescription practices and alternatives to opioid medications.

“Nevada has established policies that have become national models in prescription drug monitoring and ongoing coordination between the public and private sector. I am proud of what we have accomplished, but there is more work to be done,” Sandoval said in a statement.

Featured speakers at the summit will include U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin.

Vermont, which has emphasized opioid education for physicians and the use of nonopioid alternatives, is considered a leader in the fight against opioid overdoses by the National Safety Council and other groups.

More than 28,000 people in the United States died from opioid overdoses in 2014, and at least half of those deaths involved a prescription drug, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Contact Pashtana Usufzy at pusufzy@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Follow @pashtana_u on Twitter.