(Rutherford County, TN) Senator Shane Reeves from Murfreesboro, the Deputy Speaker of the Senate, led the Senate meeting on Thursday during their January 26th session of the 113th General Assembly. Reeves represents District 14, which includes Rutherford, Bedford and Moore Counties.

Rand McNally, Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate oversees the Senate meetings, but on occasion will turn the meeting over to Speaker Pro Tempore Ferrell Haile who, like Lt. Governor McNally, hears the bills as they are introduced. But on Thursday, the meeting was turned over to Deputy Speaker Shane Reeves to lead the order as bills were introduced and passed by Senate Members.

Reeves served his first year of the 110th General Assembly in the Senate on March 15, 2018 after a special election was held in March. The 113th General Assembly first convened on January 10, 2023.

Many of the bills that Reeves has focused on in the Senate have changed the landscape of healthcare. One of Senator Reeves bills that passed in 2022 was aimed at helping those who receive opioid prescriptions also receive medication that could save their life. As enacted, Senate Bill 2465 requires a healthcare prescriber, when prescribing 50 or more opioids to a patient, to offer a prescription for naloxone hydrochloride, which is commonly referred to as the brand name drug called NARCAN. A dose of NARCAN can completely or partially reverse an opioid overdose. Thanks to Reeves, NARCAN or medications similar to NARCAN, have been administered by a large number of parents and caregivers throughout the state of Tennessee – saving a countless number of lives when an opioid overdose occurs.