Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb got a first-hand look at the fight against opioid abuse that’s going on in Colorado Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet took the Trump appointee on the rounds.

His office described their itinerary:

They first visited the UCHealth Emergency Room, which is implementing new protocols to reduce the number of opioid prescriptions. They spoke with physicians, nurses, and other providers about alternative pain management techniques and how to better use the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to track prescriptions and monitor for abuse. Next, Bennet and Gottlieb visited the Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation (CeDAR) at the Anschutz Medical Campus for a roundtable discussion. Bennet and Gottlieb spoke with providers about expanding treatment options in rural areas, opportunities in harm reduction, and methods to encourage better prescribing practices. Finally, Bennet and Gottlieb stopped by for a meeting of the Colorado legislature’s Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Interim Study Committee. They spoke with Colorado’s leadership about the scale of the epidemic in Colorado, and Dr. Gottlieb provided an update of the FDA’s approach to tackle this crisis.

Bennet and Gottlieb also toured Children’s Hospital Colorado to commemorate the RACE for Children Act, which became law last week.

Bennet co-authored the legislation with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to encourage development of “innovative and promising” cancer drugs for children.

Gottlieb commended the senators work in Denver.

“?Owing to recent legislation that advances new pathways for bringing safe and effective medical products to the market more efficiently, and a moment of tremendous scientific promise, we are at a unique point in medicine,” he said in a statement. “We have the chance to change the course of a wider range of disease, and alter the trajectory of many illnesses. I had the opportunity to speak today with families that are facing enormous challenges – whether they are battling opioid addiction or have a child facing cancer. And I met some of those children.

“It reinforces the vital mission I and the dedicated staff at FDA work on every day. Senator Bennet’s work with Senator Rubio on the Race for Children Act is an important step in enabling FDA to fulfill that mission.”

Opioid abuse also was a focus of the day for a reason. The state’s deaths from drug abuse are soaring – overdose deaths have doubled since 2000 – and local, state and federal officials are trying to figure out how to push back.

The pair testified to the legislature’s Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Interim Study Committee Tuesday. Lawmakers created the bipartisan committee to build on gains they made in the pushback against opioid abuse in the last session and offer proposed bills for the next one.

“This opioid affliction, the epidemic that’s afflicting our state, is showing up in places it didn’t show up two or three years ago,” Bennet said in a press release from the House Democratic Press Office. “It is naturally and predictably (a topic) in every single town hall meeting or other session that I do, in urban and rural Colorado.”

Gottlieb said he saw “the scope of the epidemic here in Colorado” and offered some ideas on how the FDA could help, including a focus on drugs that would be harder to misuse and work with doctors to better manage prescribed doses.

“The idea of someone getting a 30-day supply of opioids for a tooth extraction doesn’t make a lot of clinical sense,” Gottlieb said.

Rep. Brittany Pettersen, who chairs the committee, said in the statement that “Coloradans understand the severity of this epidemic.”