Grants Pass Daily Courier: Bills in Congress aimed at fighting epidemic

Bills in Congress aimed at fighting epidemic

By Jeff Duewel

A lot of attention is focused on the opioid epidemic.

Saturday, April 28, is National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, and people could drop off drugs at several locations in town before 2 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said it's a perfect way to get rid of painkillers that could lead to more addictions. Walden represents the vast District 2 covering central and eastern Oregon, and much of Southern Oregon including Grants Pass.

On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health voted to advance 56 bills related to opioids. Walden chairs the full committee.

"9.6 people will die in the next hour because of overdoses from opioids, and 41 will show up in emergency rooms," Walden said to the subcommittee. "It's our job to move forward. We are now moving forward with really thoughtful, well-considered pieces of legislation in markup we're having today."

In a phone interview Friday, Walden said the outcome will hopefully be better access to care, funding of alternatives to opioids, better enforcement against illegal manufacture of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, and reform of antiquated rules in coverage by Medicare and Medicaid. More research and education are also in the bills.

"I think this is a pretty comprehensive legislative effort," Walden said. "The more you get engaged, the more you realize what needs to be fixed and improved.

"I feel a real sense of urgency."

He hopes the committee work is done by Memorial Day, and bills on the House floor in June.

A month ago, the Associated Press reported that the federal government will spend a record $4.6 billion to fight the opioid crisis, which killed 42,000 Americans in 2016.

Walden said Friday that among other funds, Oregon will get another $6.5 million from the 2016 Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. The first $6.5 million came last year.

He said among the slew of bills there are proposals to further expand the pool of practitioners who can oversee the administration of Suboxone, an opioid treatment drug. There is also a proposal to raise the cap on how many patients providers can care for, a cap that was raised by legislation in 2016.

One of the bills would allow pharmacists to decline to fill prescriptions if there's evidence of fraud and abuse. Another would force hospice workers to confiscate drugs left over when someone dies.

Another proposal would make sure parents of opioid addicts 18 or over can get information if the patient signs off on it. He said privacy laws have actually kept that from happening.

Walden said the pattern he's heard over and over is the same one told by Paula Peterson of Grants Pass, whose sons got ahold of excess pills.

"Let's say your friend had pain, took one or two pills, and the other 35 in the bottle sat on the shelf. Some people sell those, some people steal those. It gets on the black market."

Walden said it's becoming harder to overprescribe opioids. He recently ran into Bud Pierce, the Salem oncologist who lost to Kate Brown in the 2016 gubernatorial race, who put it into perspective.

"He said, 'I'm old enough to remember they told us it's malpractice to not use these drugs to manage patients' pain. Now it's malpractice to (overprescribe) them.' "

Walden said his Energy and Commerce Committee has taken a two-pronged approach.

Another subcommittee, Oversight and Investigation, has been looking for more than a year at Ohio drug distributor Miami-Luken, which reportedly sent 63 percent of its hydrocodone to one county in West Virginia.

"On May 8, we'll have the CEOs of the major drug distributors all there under oath, explaining how millions of pills flooded into these little towns," Walden said.