What They’re Saying: Mike Rogers “Worked on Bills that Helped Fuel the Opioids Epidemic,” While “Michigan Families Had to Pay the Price”
September 16, 2024
Michiganders “blast” Mike Rogers for “decade of advocacy… to boost opioid prescriptions” and “refus[ing] to take any responsibility” for his role in “spurring a crisis that we still battle today”
LANSING — Following the Bridge Michigan reporting on Mike Rogers’ role in the opioid crisis, Michiganders and elected officials “recounted their own brushes with the crisis that kills a Michigander every four hours, and criticized Rogers for accepting money from opioid manufacturers while sponsoring bills aimed at increasing the availability of opioids to patients suffering from pain.”
Take a look at what Michiganders are saying about Rogers, “one of Congress’ leading advocates for increased access to pain care:”
- Derrick Jackson, Director of Community Engagement for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department: “For me, this is personal. It’s not politics… When I read that he (Rogers) refused to take any responsibility, then I was like, ‘I have to be here to actually say something.’ I think about what an elected leader does. We all make mistakes, and so for me, I would anticipate someone would recognize their mistakes. They would learn from it. They would make sure future policy is better.”
- Derrick Jackson: “Before long, (he) was addicted, and not long after that, (he) was addicted to heroin. I remember as an officer, being the person that had to tell that mother that their son had (overdosed and died), and would never come home again. I will never forget what it feels like to sit in that living room, and hear their mother screaming.“
- Tim Pryor, Clarkston resident: “Pharmaceutical companies … needed to find allies in the United States Congress. And evidently, they found one in Congressman Mike Rogers. That was disappointing to me.”
- Angela Rogensues, Warren City Council President: Rogers “took money from these companies, pushed legislation and increased their profits, while spurring a crisis that we still battle today.”
- Devon Corley, Ann Arbor resident: “Take a look at Rogers’ record on opioids. While he was in Congress, Rogers took hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug companies and worked on bills that helped fuel the opioids epidemic. Rogers bragged about being a ‘champion’ for the same drug companies now paying billions of dollars in national opioid settlements, Michigan families had to pay the price.”
- Ron French, Bridge Michigan reporter: “The 2000s, when Mike Rogers was in Congress, was just an incredibly critical moment in what we now call the opioid crisis. It was a time when opioid prescriptions were increasing and so were addictions and deaths and something we’re still battling today. The reason we did the story is because when looking back through the records, we found that Mike Rogers was a leading advocate for expansion of opioid prescriptions.”
- Ron French: “[Rogers] was considered a champion for the pharmaceutical industry at the time. For example, Rogers received $226,000 in donations from companies, the same companies that are now paying billions of dollars to states including Michigan, for their role in expanding the opioid crisis. He received $162,000 from seven opioid distributors that supplied 83% of prescription opioids to Michigan during about a 13-year period. So it’s hard to deny that Congressman Rogers was definitely involved… in the opioid crisis.”
- Congressman Dan Kildee: “Mike Rogers bragged that pharmaceutical companies considered him ‘a champion’ of their industry. @ElissaSlotkin took on Big Pharma to pass new laws allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices & cap the cost of insulin at $35/month for seniors.”
- Congresswoman Haley Stevens: “Mike Rogers’ record is clear, he will do anything to benefit himself, even if it hurts Michigan families. @ElissaSlotkin on the other hand has our backs, and we must elect her to the Senate this November!”
- State Senator Dayna Polehanki: “A bombshell new report from Bridge Michigan outlines Mike Rogers’s role in exacerbating the opioid crisis – yet another example of Rogers’s record of benefiting himself while Michiganders paid the price.”
