And now, a conversation about the crisis of opioid addiction.
Last fall, Josh Siems suffered a fatal, fentanyl-linked overdose on his 31st birthday. Josh’s loved ones have thrown their support behind a bill in Annapolis that would require hospitals to play a new role in addressing our state’s opioid epidemic, by testing all opioid OD admissions for the presence of fentanyl, an often-lethal additive found in street-sold opiates.
![Melanie Yates with her friend and partner, Josh Siems. (photo courtesy Melanie Yates)](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c5e79e2/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1536x2048+0+0/resize/880x1173!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F3f%2F81%2F4f8e17a544bc80e0666fb3c79646%2Fsiemsjosh-wmelanieyates-credit-myates..jpeg)
Josh’s mother, Caryl Siems and Melanie Yates, Josh’s partner, join Tom in Studio A…