Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is headed to Washington for the first meeting of a panel set up by President Donald Trump to examine the nation's drug addiction crisis.
The meeting is being held on Friday and is scheduled to run from 12:30 p.m. until approximtely 2:30 p.m.
The President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis is chaired by New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Its other members are Baker, a Republican; Democratic Gov. Ray Cooper of North Carolina; former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy; and Harvard Medical School researcher Bertha Madras.
The agenda for the commission's first meeting Friday includes testimony from organizations such as the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and the National Council for Behavioral Health.
Opioid overdoses were responsible for more than 50,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2015.
Baker signed a wide-ranging law last year that included limits on first-time prescriptions for opioid painkillers.
