Now on to our coverage of what's happening in the Kentucky General Assembly in Frankfort.

The Kentucky Senate voted for Senate Bill 94 today.

A bill that would let nurse practitioners prescribed controlled substances.

It's sponsored by Senator Julie Rocky Adams.

The bill also calls for establishing a committee that would review how prescriptions are used In Kentucky.

Republican State Senator Donald Douglas, a physician from Nicholas Ville, voted no.

He said he was concerned patients wouldn't receive quality care.

Mr. President, my only my only concern are for those who we deliver the health care to.

My concern is that they are getting optimal health care.

State Senator Philip Wheeler, a Republican from Pikeville, also voted against the bill.

He said he was concerned about allowing more providers to prescribe opioids.

But Senate President Robert Stivers, who says his home town of Clay County, saw 3 million opioid prescriptions filled in a single year.

And he said he was in favor of the bill because it provides more access to health care.

However, he added additional legislation may be needed to help make this bill work.

So in the next year, if we want to make this legislation work, which I'm voting for, we need to look at a better mechanism for monitoring the individuals who write those prescriptions.

Then the requisite bodies, be it the Attorney General, Commonwealth Attorney, Office of Inspector General and the HFS, to go after these individuals because of those 3 million dosages that were written in Clay County that year, 97% of them were Kentucky prescribers.

Think about that.

Some people have looked at me and said, that's kind of political risky in your area.

Well, beat me if you can, because it's time to go home.

When you sit back and just watch the problem grow, I think we need to vote for the bill.

But the bigger thing we need to focus on as a body is how we curb the abuse of the substance.

That's the real problem.

Senate Bill 94 passed the Senate by a vote of 32 two with one pass vote.

It's now headed over to the House for consideration there.