Peter Shumlin: Curbing the overdose epidemic

Editor’s note: This commentary is by former Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin.
The United States currently faces an unprecedented opioid overdose epidemic. In 2016, 42,249 deaths were linked to opioids nationally. Overdose deaths were five times higher in 2016 than in 1999, and many states saw significant increases in overdose deaths from 2015 to 2016.
The epidemic has additionally worsened following the increasing presence of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid created for medical use that is