Providing for Consideration of S. Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his long-time support of these types of issues, both as a member of the Georgia State legislature and as a Member of this august body. Representative Collins has consistently and very diligently worked on these issues. As the son of a law enforcement officer, he understands all too well the importance of making sure that our communities are safe, and I thank him for his support of this.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and of the House amendment to S. 524. This week, the House has worked hard to pass 18 bills that address almost every facet of the opioid abuse epidemic.
We called for the creation of a task force to develop best practices for pain management and prescribing pain medication. We have authorized grants for local and State agencies to better fight this epidemic through better resources. We have expanded care for newborn infants who are affected by illegal substance abuse. We have improved comprehensive opioid abuse treatment to pregnant and postpartum women. We have also created safety measures for the use of opioids when treating veterans who have chronic pain.
I am proud of the measures this body has passed that make up the House amendment to S. 524.
Mr. Speaker, our Nation is facing an opioid epidemic, and no community is safe. It affects all communities across the Nation whether they be urban, suburban, or rural.
Serving more than 30 years as a community pharmacist, I have witnessed and participated in some of the greatest advances in the history of medicine. I have seen diseases that once required hospitalization become illnesses that are treated from home with medication. I have seen an antibiotic regimen that once required four tablets each day for 10 days replaced with six tablets over 5 days. I have seen a deadly disease, like hepatitis C, cured by medication in just 90 days. The advances that I have witnessed in medicine can truly be called nothing more than miraculous, and that is important.
We need to recognize that this fight against the opioid epidemic is going to have to be a team effort. We are going to have to have everyone--all healthcare professionals--involved in this. Whether they be doctors, nurses, pharmacists, PAs, APRNs--whoever--they have to be involved. Families have to be involved. Our communities have to be involved. Our legislature has to be involved. This week, our Congress has taken the lead. I am very proud of that. I am very proud of the work that it has done.
It is also going to take tools like the Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. While a member of the Georgia State legislature, I had the honor of sponsoring the legislation that led to the creation of the Georgia Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. That program has been a great tool in our toolbox to fight the opioid epidemic. Since that time, we have tweaked that program and have made it even better, and it continues to get better. It continues to help us in our fight against the opioids.
I mentioned the advances that I have witnessed in medicine. I am a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry--a big fan, perhaps its biggest fan. What I have witnessed, again, has been miraculous. I call on the pharmaceutical companies because right now there exists a gap, a gap in treating pain. Right now we have available to us medication such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and then we go to the opioids. There are very few alternatives in between there in that gap--in that void, if you will. Very few. Once you get past tramadol and a couple of others, there is nothing else for us to use, there is nothing else for us to prescribe. I have confidence in the pharmaceutical manufacturers, and I call on them to fill in that gap, to fill in that void. We need more alternatives, more choices.
Whether it is true or untrue, I can tell you that many patients don't believe that ibuprofen or acetaminophen, which you can buy without a prescription, will work as well as something that you can buy with a prescription. That is something we have to overcome, but there is definitely a void there that needs to be filled. Again, I am very, very confident that the drug manufacturers and that the pharmaceutical companies can help us fill this void, and I call on them to do just that.
Mr. Speaker, as a lifelong pharmacist, I have seen the struggles firsthand that Americans face with opioid addiction. I have witnessed my colleagues in the pharmacy profession, some who just could not overcome that weakness and who succumbed to prescription drug abuse. I have witnessed that. I have witnessed it with patients. I have witnessed it with customers who have ruined their careers, who have ruined their families, and who have ruined their lives because of opioid abuse. This is an epidemic. Certainly it is something that has to be addressed in our country.
I encourage all of my colleagues to support this measure so we can improve our efforts to raise awareness while working towards solutions to solve this health crisis. I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, and I applaud my colleagues.
This has been a very, very proud week for me to be a Member of the United States Congress. To see what my colleagues in this House have done this week--as a pharmacist, as a healthcare professional--has made me very, very proud. We did good this week, and I am very proud to be a Member of this House.
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