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In Congress, David Trone keeps it personal: Combating the opioid epidemic that killed his nephew


Last updated December 13, 2021

By Tina Underwood

white man in suit and yellow tie, David Trone '77,

U.S. Congressman David Trone.

For Maryland U.S. Representative David Trone (D-District 6), the nation’s opioid crisis hits close to home. In 2016, Trone lost a nephew to an overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin. Trone, a Furman University alumnus (class of 1977) and trustee, is now on a mission to crush the scourge as co-chair of the Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking. During a trip to Mexico to investigate the issue, Trone saw no evidence of a slowdown in the epidemic.

Referring to the Mexican government and law enforcement officials there, Trone told the opioids commission, “What we really saw was a lack of urgency.” He noted the urgency in the trillions of dollars spent in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and in the hundreds of billions of dollars spent in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that more than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in a 12-month span — about 75 percent of those due to opioids. Learn more about Trone’s fight in The Washington Post.

At Furman, Trone studied English, business and political science, and went on to earn a Master of Business Administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985.

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