Substance Use-Disorder Prevention That Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, our Nation is in the midst of the worst drug epidemic in its history. There is no town too small, no suburb too wealthy to be spared. Every day, more than 115 Americans die from an opioid overdose. In the past 3 years, there has been a 53-percent spike in drug overdose deaths in Illinois, with more than 2,400 lives lost in 2016. I am glad we are finally doing something to address this crisis.

To truly prevent addiction and stop the next drug epidemic, we need to look at the factors driving this crisis.

I am pleased that several of my bills to help prevent opioid addiction have been included in the bill before us. Whether it is witnessing violence, experiencing a parent's opioid addiction, or facing abuse in the home, traumatic experiences can harm a child's brain.

Thanks to the Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACEs, study and advancements in brain science, we know that, left unaddressed, these events can have an impact on future health problems, mental illness, drug use, and the cycle of violence. But with the right care and support, we can help heal children who experience trauma and prevent serious, negative consequences.

I want to thank Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray for including legislation I introduced with Senators Heitkamp, Capito, and Murkowski. Our language will help train more teachers, doctors, social services, first responders, and the justice system to recognize signs of trauma in children and provide help to those in need.

Our provisions will improve coordination between Federal agencies, ensure more Federal funding is used to promote these skills and awareness, and expand the workforce capable to providing care.

In 2016, Big Pharma produced 14 billion opioid doses--enough for every adult in America to have a 3-week supply of opioids. Each year, the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, sets the amount of opioids allowed to be produced in the United States. Between 1993 and 2015, DEA allowed production of oxycodone to increase 39-fold and hydrocodone to increase 12-fold. The sheer volume of opioids manufactured each year increases risk of abuse--four of five new heroin users started with painkillers.

One problem is that, when setting annual quotas, DEA is unable to look at how a drug is abused or leads to overdose deaths. Why should DEA be handcuffed from considering the real-world misuse of oxycodone pills when it sets the production levels? This package includes my bipartisan bill to strengthen DEA's ability to adjust quotas to reflect the risk of opioid misuse, while improving flexibility to avoid any shortages.

I want to thank Chairman Grassley, Ranking Member Feinstein, and DEA for working so closely with me and Senator Kennedy. It is a good thing that we are now talking about drug addiction as a treatable disease, not a moral failing that should be punished. Sadly, it has taken us too long to get here.

The opioid epidemic also underscores the importance of having quality health insurance--coverage that includes mental health and substance abuse treatment. But once again, President Trump wants to allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with a preexisting condition--such as an opioid addiction--and promote ``junk'' insurance plans that don't cover substance abuse treatment. I will fight tooth and nail against efforts to repeal, gut, or sabotage this quality care so that we do not return to the dark days of coverage denials and sky- high premiums.

The legislation before us addresses several important factors, and I am happy to support it today, but it neglects many more actions we need to take.

This opioid package fails to include my bipartisan bill with Senators Brown and Portman, which would lift an outdated barrier to addiction treatment that restricts Medicaid from paying for care in facilities larger than 16 beds.

We have worked in a thoughtful, open process to improve this legislation and address any policy concerns, and I look forward to including our revised bill in conference with the House.

We must also hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its role in creating the epidemic through their deceptive conduct. Drug companies have profited from flooding the market with painkillers, often with misleading information, and should have to pay for the addiction treatment that their products have caused. Additionally, executives from Perdue Pharma, Janssen, Abbott, Endo, Insys, and other manufacturers must testify before the Senate to explain their role in this epidemic.

Today's bipartisan opioid legislation is an important step forward, but we need to do more, and quickly, to meet this destructive crisis head-on.

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