For the last 14 years, Vanderbilt University Medical Center's chronic pain doctor, Dr. David Edwards, has worked closely with the state's opioid problem.
"Now on a clinic day, a quarter of my time is spent directly addressing opioids," Edwards said.
Unfortunately, he expected the trend to get worse before getting better.
"We've seen really a rapid rise in the last five years, it's just up and up and up with opioids. So much so that its overcoming deaths by motor vehicle collisions, by cancer rates," explained Edwards.
Edwards said opioid abuse has even overcome tobacco abuse and Tennessee ranks the second highest in prescription drugs per capita, it's also one of the highest for neonatal abstinence syndrome.
“We’re the very center of this crisis,” Edwards said.
The numbers speak for themselves. "They're staggering but nothing grips you more than when you hear a personal story," said House Speaker Beth Harwell.
Harwell formed a task force to combat the opioid epidemic. Their research shows a person convicted of drug abuse is sentenced to an average of three years in prison. "That costs the state about $120,000 per bed, the reality is we don't rehabilitate them," Harwell said.
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She wants more drug courts and instead of a prison sentence, a sentence of rehabilitation, "that would cost the state about $45,000 a bed and usually take about 18 months."
Harwell may be hopeful state polices will soon change but on the front line, doctors don't see this going anywhere fast.
"We're just seeing the physicians and the police force and everyone pushing patients to the clinics saying you need to get off but until patients also recognize that hey, this is probably getting out of hand, I need help...I think this crisis is going to continue to go up," Edwards said.
