By the St. Cloud Times
Too many people are dying from overdoses of prescription pain killers!

The opioid overdose crisis is already the ripe old age of 20 — and despite heightened public awareness it shows no signs of slowing with age. What’s it going to take for America to curb this addiction epidemic?

A big part of the solution is no different than what experts started suggesting when this deadly trend became clear about 10 years ago. Doctors (and patients) need to be acutely aware of opioid-based pain medications to the point of shifting pain-management plans away from them.

Two other key answers are continued attention and increased resources. President Trump provided potential for big doses of both last month when he announced he would declare the opioid crisis a national emergency.  However, it’s now been more than a month since the president said he would make the declaration and he has yet to officially do it.

However, curbing the epidemic is more than the job of the federal government. States, especially through education and human service programs, can keep working to educate people of all ages about opioids. Meanwhile, new ideas also deserve to be heard.