Michigan Dems blast Mike Rogers over opioid stance in Congress

• Democrats are sharpening attacks on U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, saying he bears blame for the opioid crisis
• Rogers says while in Congress he pushed for greater pain med access to decrease suffering
• A recent Bridge Michigan investigation chronicled Rogers’ role in Congress while opioid addiction was exploding

DETROIT — Democrats blasted Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers Thursday in the wake of a Bridge Michigan investigation of his role in increasing access to prescription opioids and accepting political contributions from opioid manufacturers while in Congress in the 2000s.

“Rogers led the charge in Congress for increased access to opioids, and the bills he wrote did not provide additional protections for over prescribing,” Warren City Council President Angela Rogensues, said at a Detroit press conference organized by the state Democratic Party.

“He took money from these companies, pushed legislation and increased their profits, while spurring a crisis that we still battle today.”

Bridge found that Rogers was a leading advocate for increased access to opioids to fight pain during his time in Congress, where he served from 2001-2015. Prescriptions to synthetic opioids like Oxycontin skyrocketed during the decade of the 2000s, as did opioid addiction and deaths.  In 2023, there were 2,267 opioid-related deaths in Michigan, more than tenfold the number who died in 2000 (196).

Related:

• Mike Rogers vows to fight drug war, but urged opioid access in Congress
• How is your Michigan community spending opioid settlement money? Look it up
• Michigan communities sit on $90M meant to help drug users, Bridge finds

Rogers has cited his brother's long battle with back surgeries, previously telling Bridge that he was attempting to make sure that "true chronic pain sufferers had access to drugs that would at least give some relief and hopefully allow them to spend some time with their family."

But in Thursday’s Democratic Party press conference, community leaders from southeast Michigan 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.

Clarkston resident Tim Pryor said what separates the opioid crisis from the rest of the drug war is “it's not offshore cartels” that sparked the epidemic, but “companies here in America operating within the law. Those 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.”

Rogers is locked in a tight race for the open Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow. His Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, was elected to Congress in 2018 and did not serve at the same time as Rogers. 

Rogers campaign spokesperson Chris Gustafson responded to Thursday’s press conference by criticizing Slotkin for the more recent synthetic-opioid fentanyl surge.

“Your readers are patiently waiting for your story on the 2,300 Michiganders who died from fentanyl last year because of Slotkin’s refusal to secure the southern border,” Gustafson wrote Bridge. “Mike Rogers has been clear that the pharmaceutical industry and federal government share blame for the opioid epidemic, including the congresswoman who’s done nothing in six years to help the families who are suffering.” 

Slotkin last year joined Michigan Republican U.S. Rep. John James in co-sponsoring legislation that aimed to deter fentanyl imports and supported a bipartisan border deal that failed in the Senate.

Ads by Slotkin and allies have hammered Rogers for accepting political contributions from the drug industry, but until Thursday had not directly attacked him for his connections to opioid manufacturers.

Bridge found that Rogers was not alone in advocating for increased access to pain medications. Former Michigan U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a Democrat who suffered from chronic pain, expressed similar views at the time.

What distinguished Rogers from others in Congress was his close ties to pain associations that were later discovered to be bankrolled by the drug companies trying to increase sales of products like Oxycontin. 

In Rogers' recent responses to Bridge’s investigation, the former congressman declined to say whether Congress played a role in the crisis, putting the onus only on doctors and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

When asked if he agreed that increased opioid prescriptions in the 2000s, which his bills urged, played a role in increased addictions, Rogers said: “The data clearly shows that doctors who were over prescribing were causing addiction in patients, but not all doctors, and certainly not all patients.”

That answer was disappointing to Derrick Jackson, director of community engagement for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department, who spoke at Thursday’s press conference.

“For me, this is personal. It's not politics,” said Jackson, who said his wife is in recovery from opioid addiction. “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.”