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

Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Tennessee, as well as leaders on both sides. This effort has been truly bipartisan. It is a profoundly significant beginning but only a first step. It needs to be followed by others because we know that this epidemic truly is national.

I especially thank my colleague from West Virginia who will follow me, Senator Manchin, for his tireless, relentless efforts on this issue. I have been very proud to work with him and to begin working on it when I was attorney general of the State of Connecticut in suing the painkiller manufacturers and taking action against the sellers of prescription opioids, to make sure they are held accountable.

The communities need our help. We promised action, and we are now delivering, in part, on this issue, which has been so devastating and deadly for so many families, communities, States, and towns throughout Connecticut and our Nation.

The calls for action tonight are answered in this beginning step with money that will go to treatment, prevention, and law enforcement. That money is a good first step, but it must be followed by additional investments and commitment.

This measure increases the number of drug take-back programs. I visited communities, most recently East Hartford in Greenwich, where these take-back programs have provided an anonymous, secure way to rid medicine cabinets of drugs that all too often can be a menace. Medicine cabinets are a modern-day menace when they provide accessible painkillers and opioids to teenagers, children, and others who begin lifetimes of addiction.

This measure is profoundly important in setting standards and guidelines for sober houses, a very important resource but one that requires some sense of regularity and guidelines. There are many sober homes in Connecticut--for example, in Torrington--that do good work. But Connecticut is grappling with sober homes operated by bad actors who put lives at risk. This prevention is a step in the right direction.

I am very proud of a bill I have led with Senators Grassley and Brown to enhance transparency in opioid prescribing. This provision requires drug companies to disclose payments made to nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other prescribers, ensuring that they are not being inappropriately influenced by these manufacturers. It is already required for doctors. It ought to be required for everyone who may be involved in prescribing these powerful medicines.

The bill will also fight back against deadly drug trafficking when it involves use of the postal system. Just a few weeks ago, in New Haven, there was a mass overdose caused by trafficked synthetic drugs. More than 100 people overdosed on K2 brought into this country by China and Mexico through the mail. These new law enforcement tools are critically important, as is the reauthorization of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and its High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program. This bill will help protect our citizens. I thank all my colleagues for supporting it.

I am looking forward to a positive, affirmative vote that will help communities throughout the country and spare families the heartbreaking and gut-wrenching problem that infects so many healthy communities. Everyone is affected and touched by this problem. I thank my colleagues for supporting this bill.

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