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The Drugging of America
By Representative Gene DiGirolamo and Deb Beck
Pseudo-addiction. A term utilized to minimize and misrepresent the
dangers of addiction to prescription opiates according to a lawsuit filed in
California against the major manufacturers of prescription opiates.
Zohydro ER, an extended release hydrocodone product (an opiate) was
approved for sale in the United States by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration
despite an 11-2 vote of disapproval by its own medical advisory panel.
Opana, a new narcotic painkiller believed to be ten times stronger than
morphine was approved by the FDA in 2006 with an extended release product
approved in 2013 and now, there is widespread diversion of suboxone, a
prescription opiate that is intended to be used to treat heroin addiction. In
addition, recently we learned that the FDA has approved the use of the painkiller
Oxycontin for children as young as eleven.
What’s going on here?
In August of this year, the Washington Post reported that the federal
government “. . . proposed $133 million in new spending to curb the
overprescription of opioid painkillers, the drugs that have proved to be the
primary gateway to heroin use . . .” (Washington Post, August 16th)
Overprescribing? Yes indeed. Over 16,000 pounds – 8 tons of unneeded,
discarded prescription and other drugs were taken off the streets of PA through
the drug take-back program in a single year. 16,000 pounds of these drugs were
prescribed but were apparently unneeded. Certainly there are legitimate uses for
these drugs – but how could our aim be this bad?
A report of Pennsylvania’s Joint State Government Commission (June,
2015) identifies family and friends as the leading sources for these prescription
drug opiates. Family and friends – not some Colombian drug cartel. And where
do family and friends get prescription opiates? Overwhelmingly, they are gotten
from physicians who are subject to a thunderous, murderous marketing
campaign to prescribe these drugs.
With 2,525 people dead in one year in Pennsylvania, it’s time to turn off the
faucet.
In 2014, members of the General Assembly met with representatives of the
manufacturers of prescription drug opiates and asked them to fund some minor
initiatives including drug take-back boxes and PA’s new Prescription Drug
Monitoring Program to address a problem primarily created by the manufacturers
themselves. The industry has never responded to this request.
In the meantime, the companies project $15 billion in profits on the sale of
prescription opiates in 2016. Also, in the meantime, 2,525 Pennsylvanians lost
their lives to prescription drug overdoses in 2013 with higher numbers expected
in subsequent years.
Recently, the PA General Assembly enacted legislation to save
Pennsylvanians from the very overprescribing discussed here by making Narcan
widely available and by establishing the Prescription Drug Monitoring program.
It’s time for the prescription drug manufacturers to step up and take
responsibility. It is time for accountability.
House Bill 1511 (DiGirolamo, prime sponsor), would establish just such
accountability by imposing a 10% impact fee on the sale of opiates in the
Commonwealth. This impact fee on the manufacturers will be utilized to clean up
the damage done to our communities by these powerful addictive drugs. Funds
will go to the counties to purchase life-saving Narcan for local police, to fund
opiate-related criminal justice costs and to provide drug and alcohol counseling in
county jails. In addition, the impact fee will provide long term residential
addiction treatment through the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and
will be utilized to support the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program in the
Department of Health.
2,525 Pennsylvanians are dead. It is time for accountability.
Representative Gene DiGirolamo is the Majority Chairman of the PA House
Human Services Committee and represents the 18th District in Bucks county. He
can be reached at 215-750-1017
Deb Beck is President of the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of
Pennsylvania and can be reached at [email protected]
8/27/15