WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, U.S. Reps. Bill Delahunt (MA-10), Mary Bono Mack (CA-45) and Hal Rogers (KY-05), co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse, hosted a bipartisan forum on Capitol Hill to unveil a number of effective policy solutions to fight the growing national problem of prescription drug abuse.  

"Prescription drug abuse in the United States is a national crisis that impacts our communities and our economy, with the potential to create a lost generation of Americans,” said Delahunt. “We are losing more of our citizens to the abuse of prescription drugs than we are in the wars we've fought. Today’s forum is an opportunity to hear from those on the “front lines” in this battle.”

Today’s forum revealed that the number of hospital admissions for prescription drug abuse has increased by 400% in the last decade, according to recent reports from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  The report states that the nonmedical use of prescription drugs has increased by 12% in just one year from 2008-2009.

According to today’s witnesses, the impacts in Massachusetts are significant.  Between 2002 and 2007, Massachusetts lost 42 times as many residents to opioid-related overdoses than in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  Over the past six months, Cape Cod and South Shore communities have experienced a spree of bank robberies, other thefts and home invasions, and local police have noted that addiction to prescription drugs has played a role.

Today’s Capitol Hill forum consisted of two panels—one summarizing prescription drug abuse today, and the other discussing the value of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and the recently developed interstate compact on PDMP data sharing.

Massachusetts State Senator Steven A. Tolman, who chaired the Commission on OxyContin and Heroin Abuse, spoke about how the state’s 1,900 non-violent drug offenders now cost taxpayers over $70 million a year.  He highlighted the need for “jail diversion” programs that save money by taking first time, low-level offenders out of a correction setting, and placing them into treatment programs. 

Tolman said, “It is the best first step towards reforming a system in dire need of attention.”

The Massachusetts Commission recommended last year that funding be provided to improve the state’s PDMP program. This past spring, Delahunt held a forum at the Massachusetts State House to discuss the Commission’s recommendations.  Every witness and panelist who testified at the forum cited the critical role of the PDMP in helping stem the tide of this epidemic.

This week the House is expected to approve two legislative proposals -- H.R. 5809, the Safe Drug Disposal Act of 2010, and H.R. 5710, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Reauthorization Act of 2010 -- designed to address the national prescription drug abuse crisis.

• The Safe Drug Disposal Act of 2010 boosts programs to collect and dispose of unused prescription drugs.  It also authorizes the Director of National Drug Control Policy to boost public education and outreach to increase public awareness of safe drug disposal programs. and directs the Comptroller General to collect data on the delivery, transfer, and disposal of controlled substances.  

• The National All-Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Reauthorization Act of 2010 amends the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act of 2005 to foster the establishment of state-administered controlled substance monitoring systems.  This will ensure that appropriate law enforcement, regulatory, and state professional licensing authorities have access to prescription history information to make it easier to investigate drug diversion and prescribing and dispensing practices of errant prescribers or pharmacists.  Once these proposals pass the House, they will move to the Senate.