U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers gets first Humanitarian Award from Mothers Against Prescription Drug Abuse

Rep. Hal Rogers

U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers of Somerset was honored in Washington Oct. 23 by Mothers Against Prescription Drug Abuse, a non-profit, chaired by his former House Republican colleague Mary Bono and founded by mothers who have lost children to the opioid epidemic.

Rogers, who represents Eastern Kentucky's Fifth District, was the first recipient of MAPDA’s Humanitarian Award.

“Hal was the first in Congress to recognize the threat to our country, our communities and our families,” Bono said in a press release. “His leadership is second to none when it comes to addressing the opioid epidemic.” The release said Rogers: 

• Helped establish a program in 2001 to fund prescription-drug monitoring programs, which help doctors and pharmacists spot and prevent prescription drug abuse and are now used in 49 states.
• Launched Operation UNITE, a 2003 initiative in Southern and Eastern Kentucky that battles drug abuse through law enforcement, treatment and education and is "a national model to combat the epidemic." In 2012, UNITE and Rogers started the Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit.
• Started the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse with Bono in 2010.
• Championed laws that have provided billions of dollars "to battle the epidemic through prevention, treatment, enforcement and research."