House passes opioid package, which now heads to Senate
http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article88535867.html
WASHINGTON
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a measure on Friday to help fight heroin and prescription opioid abuse after Democrats dropped a demand that the proposal include nearly $1 billion for drug treatment services.
The legislation, which was crafted by a joint House-Senate committee, now goes to the Senate next week, where Democrats must decide whether to approve it even though President Barack Obama might not sign it into law because of a lack of funding.
Currently, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act authorizes nearly $200 million for a variety of programs aimed at curbing prescription opioid and heroin abuse. But Congress must appropriate the money at a later date.
Earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Obama might not sign the bill if no funding was attached.
The legislation passed 407-5 on Thursday with lawmakers from both parties supporting the bill in a rare show of election-year bipartisanship.
The bill would provide resources to expand opioid prevention and educational efforts and to increase the availability of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone for police and first responders. The measure strengthens programs to monitor and track opioid prescription trends and boosts efforts to identify and treat incarcerated addicts.
Earlier this week, Democrats tried to add $925 million to the bill to pay for drug treatment services. The Obama administration had asked for $1.1 billion.
Republicans have rejected both funding requests, saying the House Appropriations Committee would provide $581 million to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and $90 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to address opioid abuse in their 2017 fiscal year funding bill.
Congressman Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee and led the committee that hammered together a compromise on the legislation, said the overwhelming support for the bill “underscores the urgency” of the prescription opioid and heroin crisis.
“I hope the Senate will swiftly follow suit. We must all come together, and get the job done. What we are doing will help save lives,” Upton said in a statement.
Public health officials dealing with a national increase in drug addiction were cautiously optimistic, despite Senate Democrats’ unease with the bill’s lack of funding.
Chrissie Juliano, director of the Big Cities Health Coalition, which represents 28 large public health departments, called the legislation a “first step” but said more money was needed.
“We look forward to working with congressional leaders in the coming days to find a way to ensure robust funding to accompany their response,” she said in a statement.
A popular class of painkillers, opioids include the illegal drug heroin as well as the prescription medications codeine, oxycodone, morphine and others. But they are highly addictive, and in 2014 they were involved in 6 out of 10 fatal drug overdoses in the nation, according to the CDC.
In Florida, heroin overdose deaths jumped 900 percent from 2010 to 2014, according to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission.
In Florida, heroin overdose deaths jumped 900 percent from 2010 to 2014, according to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. The increase in heroin consumption has been linked to addiction that began with the overuse of prescription drugs.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Sarasota Republican who also represents Manatee County, called the House vote a “significant step toward breaking heroin’s deadly grip on America.”
Manatee County in 2014 had the highest rate of heroin overdose deaths per capita in the state.
“The Senate is all that stands between this bill and the president’s desk, and I urge our senators to take action as quickly as possible,” Buchanan said in a statement.
The Senate is expected to vote on the measure next week before its seven-week summer recess begins next Friday, and passage seems certain. When Democratic senators were unable to increase funding for the Senate opioid bill by $600 million, the legislation still passed 94-1.
More than 200 advocacy groups have expressed their support for the conference legislation, citing a need to address the problem sooner rather than later.
Countering the rise in opioid-related deaths has become a widely popular cause. Earlier this week, the Obama administration announced plans to allow doctors to nearly triple the number of patients to whom they can prescribe buprenorphine, a powerful medication to treat opioid addiction. The new rule, effective Aug. 5, raises that number from 100 to 275
Filed under: General Problems
Ditto Tracey,,,but in thee big picture of things,,,,why,,,,,why is their sooo much medical illness that is physically painful??I have a theory,,,,,Thee American worker has been pushed TOOO FAR…..we have to work 5 times harder then our parents for less money then our parents made,,and work longer hours for less pay..Our mortgages are 100 times higher then our parents,,,hell all our bills are 1000 x’s higher then our parents,,,with less money then our parents had…The wage has NOT moved in 40 years ,,,thus,,,,thee American workers bodies are breaking,,,LITERALLY!!!.Our society as a whole is harsher, crueler and more inhumane then our parents were,,for our parents ,,parents,,,,still remember thee depression of the 1920 thru 1930’s,,,,,,All in all,,,EVERYTHING is worse,,the wage,the mortgages,the medical bills,,everything is 1000’s times more money,,yet the wages have not moved,,thus our bodies are breaking…Also with medical advances in imagery,,we can actually see thee impact of this slave labor onto our bodfies,,,,but here’s the biggy,,,.”our” government will NEVER EVER admit this,,,they will continue to lie about unemployment rates,,,this completely false abuse epidemic,,,,,”.our deaths from forced endurement of physical pain,,,its ALLLLL A LIE FOLKS.. A quick example of this all being a lie,,,my hubby 6 years ago,,unknowly drank a cup of coffee from a coffee machine that was used to make teas also..The last tea made in this coffee machine was ,”Inka tea,”,,ie coca tea,,,Well he was FORCED to go to a ,”abuse counselor to keep his CDL,,,even though the guy never even smoked pot,growing up in a church community..Well we got a copy of the report written by this ,”abuse counselor,”’and in the counselors report it stated my hubby admitted to doing cocaine!!!HE NEVER EVER ADMITTED TO DOING ANY DRUG,,, he admitted to drinking a cup of coffee,,from a machine that was a dual tea machine,,,THAT WAS IT..He called this so-called counselor and confronted him,,,the counselor told him,,,if he confronted him again or alter his report w/the truth,,that the counselor would make sure my husband would LOOSE his cdl for good!!!!!So a prime example of ,”abuse counselor’s outright lying about their patients in order to ,”up” their statistic on this false abuse epidemic,,and it is ALLLLLL a LIE!!!!,,IT IS ALLL CORRUPT,,,IT IS ALLL ABUSE OF ,”JUST POWERS,” ALL BEING PAID FOR BY US!!!!,,sadly,,i feel thee only way it will get fixed is if a full revolution happens or a actual law suit against the United States Government for corruption,willfull torture and genocide onto the medically ill,,,,,,soon,,and we get back to our founding fathers documentation on the laws,morals,and the concept of true life,liberty and justice for all,,,,,,sounds corny, but jmo,,true,,,,,mary
In other words, recovering “opioid” addicts will have better access to a prescription opioid (buprenorphine or medications with bup) while those with legitimate physical pain (acute, post-op, and chronic) will have even less access to that same class of medications. Yep, sounds about like our backwards, screwed-up government.
As I’ve stated many times, I have no problems with recovering addicts being prescribed bup, Suboxone (bup and naloxone), etc to help lessen their cravings. If medication helps them stay off heroin or whatever substance of choice they abused, it should be an option for addiction treatment.
That being said, my problem with all of this is that those with legitimate pain should have the same access, yet we’re the ones who have to jump through all the hoops IF we’re lucky enough to find a doctor to prescribe prescription opioids for pain. The hypocrisy is sickening!