Chris McKenna is reporting for The Fray the New York State Senate February 4, passed 17 bills intended to address the opioid epidemic. One of the bills sponsored by Democrat state Sen. Jen Metzger, and approved unanimously, would crack down on physicians who over-prescribe painkillers by adding a clause to state law requiring the state Health Department to monitor prescription data for the "inappropriate prescribing of controlled substance." The Senate passed the same bill last session, but the Assembly never took it up. The Rosendale Democrat co-sponsored most of the other bills approved on Tuesday, including measures that would require updated training for prescribing controlled substances and require that patients who are given opioids also be prescribed drugs that can reverse an overdose. Read the full story at The Fray.