YORK — U.S. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, want Congress to fund $600 million in emergency appropriations to address the opioid and heroin epidemic.

As well, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills, along with other states’ attorneys general, is urging the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to adopt proposed opioid prescribing guidelines for doctors.

Of the 174 drug overdose deaths in Maine in the first nine months of 2015, 70 were caused by at least one pharmaceutical opioid, said Mills in a news release.

The emergency funding bill sponsored by Shaheen and co-sponsored by King would help provide substance abuse prevention and treatment, more prescription drug monitoring, expansion of medication-assisted treatment programs, and increased funding for law enforcement, and inject more money into community policing, among other initiatives.

“The opioid and heroin epidemic is a crisis that demands our immediate attention,” King said at a news conference Friday at York Hospital. “People in Maine and around the country are losing their lives, communities are being torn apart, and first responders and health care providers are being pushed to the brink. Congress must act quickly and in a comprehensive way to provide those on the front line with the additional tools and resources critical to curbing this deadly problem.”

“Congress needs to treat the heroin epidemic like the national public health emergency that it is,” said Shaheen. She noted its effect on families, and pointed out that first responders are often overwhelmed and need more support.

King and Shaheen were joined by York Chief of Police and hospital Chairman Doug Bracy, York Hospital President and CEO Jud Knox and York High School Principal Meghan Ward, as well as treatment practitioners and a patient in recovery.

On the state level, Mills, in the letter to CDC Director Tom Frieden, pointed out that last year in Maine, there were about 1 million prescriptions written for opioids.

“As law enforcement works to interdict the supply of heroin and fentanyl, we need doctors and other prescribers to reduce the supply of prescription opioids,” she wrote.

Mills quoted a Department of Justice report that showed 80 percent of people arrested for heroin offenses say they started using prescription painkillers.

“The increase in overdose deaths has made prescribing protocols a law enforcement and public safety issue,” said Mills. “Unfortunately, many prescribers, particularly primary care and family physicians, lack clear and practical guidance in deciding when and how to prescribe opioids.”

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].