The heartbreaking stories of Coloradans who know the epidemic of opioid abuse first hand are informing national policy. U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican from Yuma, takes what he hears in his home state to drive his passion around the issue, his office says.

He spoke about the issue on the Senate floor Tuesday, referencing stories he heard in Colorado to urge Washington leaders to do more.

Tuesday Gardner used his time at the Senate Republicans’ weekly press conference to talk about roundtables he held across the state over the previous two weeks.

He said he learned that in Alamosa that 90 percent of the people in jail are addicted to narcotics. He said 1 in 10 people who are saved in the emergency room at Swedish Hospital in Denver are dead, nonetheless, in a year.

In the Wednesday video above, at the 7:50 mark, Gardner said:

“Kids are given nasal spray so they can revive their parents.”

“They were trying to make sure that Medicaid could reimburse for the nasal spray of Narcan. So that children could administer it to their parents when they overdosed, because it’s easier for a child, a little child, to administer a nasal spray than an injection. Kids are given nasal spray so they can revive their parents.

If that parent goes to the emergency room in Swedish Hospital in Denver, Colorado, revived by that child, 1 in 10 of them, of those parents revived, won’t come back again, because they’ll be dead.

“We’ve done a lot of work in this country, we have a lot more work to do.”

The website Medscape reported Wednesday that key pieces of federal legislation are in the works in the Senate.

More programs are being sought, but, so far, there’s not a plan to pay for them. Congress already has passed its spending bill for the year.

The Senate on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is writing the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 for an April 24 session. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Denver, serves on that committee.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is preparing 34 pieces of legislation dealing with Medicare and Medicaid in the context of opioid abuse, Medscape reported.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee also is looking for solutions.