[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 118 (Thursday, August 5, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6860-S6861]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SECURE AND RESPONSIBLE DRUG DISPOSAL ACT

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for their support 
in passing S. 3397, the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act by 
unanimous consent this week. I thank the Senate cosponsors of this 
bill--Senator Grassley, Senator Brown of Ohio, Senator Gillibrand, 
Senator Collins, Senator Corker, Senator Feingold, Senator Kohl, 
Senator Schumer and Senator Durbin. I especially thank my lead 
cosponsor, Senator Cornyn, and his counsel Gustav Eyler for their 
significant efforts on behalf of this important legislation.
  When the Drug Enforcement Administration brought this issue to my 
attention, I was eager to work on it because this is such a commonsense 
bill.
  We know that prescription drug abuse is on the rise and what is even 
scarier is that it is on the rise among teenagers. In fact, teens abuse 
prescription drugs more than any illicit drug

[[Page S6861]]

besides marijuana. And according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free 
America, 55 percent of teens say that it is easy to get prescription 
drugs from their parents' medicine cabinets. We also know that up to 17 
percent of all prescription drug medication goes unused each year.
  This bill is an important step towards getting unused, unwanted or 
expired medication off families' shelves and into the hands of proper 
authorities. The bill makes it possible for State and local law 
enforcement ``take-back'' programs to accept controlled substances as 
well, which is something that is currently very difficult for them to 
do. I introduced this legislation because I believe we have to give 
families a better option than either leaving dangerous medication in 
their homes or flushing such medication into the water supply.
  Parents know that keeping unwanted prescription drugs in their homes 
increases the risk that young people will find them, but current law 
provides them with few alternatives. By making it easier for people to 
dispose of controlled substances they no longer need, we can reduce 
teens' access to these drugs and help curb teen drug abuse. This bill 
amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow the Attorney General to 
draft regulations permitting authorized entities to accept and dispose 
of controlled substances. These regulations will enable state, local, 
and private entities to operate drug take-back programs for all 
prescription drugs, while taking the necessary steps to prevent 
unlawful diversion and promote safe disposal.
  Senator Cornyn recounts with great specificity the provisions of this 
bill that were added after consultation with many of our House 
colleagues and their staffs. I want to mention those members whose 
contributions to this bill have improved it greatly: Representatives 
Henry Waxman, Joe Barton, Jay Inslee, Bart Stupak, and Lamar Smith. I 
am grateful to their offices for working with us to get this bill to a 
place where it could obtain the unanimous support of the U.S. Senate, 
and I second Senator Cornyn's comments about the specific contributions 
of each of those individuals and their offices.
  The provisions that we added after collaboration with House offices, 
along with the bill's ``no cost'' estimate from the Congressional 
Budget Office, are among the many reasons the bill enjoys the support 
of 41 State attorneys general, the Department of Justice, and the 
National Association of Chain Drug Stores. They also prove that this 
bill is bicameral in its design, as well as bipartisan.
  I want to thank all of my colleagues again for their support.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I rise to thank and congratulate my 
colleagues for passing the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act by 
unanimous consent. I am proud to have worked closely with Senator 
Klobuchar to draft and introduce the bill, and I thank her and her 
chief counsel, Paige Herwig, for their ideas and advocacy of 
commonsense drug disposal solutions.
  The Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act will make a cost-free 
change to the Controlled Substances Act to permit State and private 
entities to accept unused controlled substances through drug take-back 
programs. As the Senate unanimously recognized, the Secure and 
Responsible Drug Disposal Act is necessary because up to 17 percent of 
prescribed medication goes unused every year.
  State, local, and private entities already have established drug 
take-back programs to keep some of this unwanted medication away from 
children and drug abusers. But the Federal Controlled Substances Act, 
CSA, currently prevents these drug take-back programs from accepting 
the most dangerous medications--controlled substances. The CSA 
particularly prohibits people prescribed controlled substances from 
giving them to any person or entity without express permission from the 
Drug Enforcement Administration. As a result, individual consumers and 
long-term care facilities now either stockpile unwanted controlled 
substances or dispose of them in improper ways, such as flushing them 
into the water supply. This can lead to drug diversion or water 
pollution.
  Diverted prescription drugs contributed to a 114-percent increase in 
overdose deaths involving prescription opioids between 2001 and 2005, 
and the number of treatment admissions for prescription opioids 
increased 74 percent from 2002 to 2006. Troublingly, over one-third of 
new prescription drug abusers are teenagers, who now abuse prescription 
drugs more than any controlled substance except marijuana.
  This bill will fix the problems of unwanted prescription drug 
stockpiling and improper disposal by amending the CSA to allow the 
Attorney General to draft regulations permitting authorized entities to 
accept and dispose of controlled substances. These regulations will 
enable state, local, and private entities to operate drug take-back 
programs for all prescription drugs in a safe and effective manner 
consistent with diversion controls.
  In discussing how the bill will allow drug take-back programs to 
accept unwanted controlled substances, I want to highlight certain 
provisions we added to the bill after collaborating with House 
colleagues and their staff. First, in authorizing new drug disposal 
regulations, the bill makes clear that ``the Attorney General shall 
take into consideration the public health and safety, as well as the 
ease and cost of program implementation and participation by various 
communities.'' Representative Jay Inslee, who has been a strong 
advocate for drug disposal programs, suggested this important 
provision. It ensures that the planned drug disposal regulations will 
give States and private entities wide latitude to design the most 
effective take-back programs for their communities. This includes 
considering the differences between rural and urban communities.
  Second, the bill notes that the Attorney General's regulations ``may 
not require any entity to establish or operate a delivery or disposal 
program.'' Representative Joe Barton, along with other members of the 
House Energy and Commerce Committee, proposed this language to clarify 
that no State, town, or business will have to run a drug take-back 
program unless they want to do so. This provision is a welcomed change 
from the type of unfunded mandates we so often see in Federal laws.
  Third, the bill allows long-term care facilities to dispose of their 
residents' medications, and it permits ``any person lawfully entitled 
to dispose of [a] decedent's property'' to deliver the decedent's 
unused medication for disposal. These common-sense provisions were 
advanced by Representatives Bart Stupak, Henry Waxman, Lamar Smith, and 
other House members. They address the specific concerns of long-term 
care facilities and the practical worries of anyone who loses a loved 
one.
  These collected provisions, along with the bill's ``no cost'' 
estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, are among the many 
reasons the bill enjoys the support of 41 State attorneys general, the 
Department of Justice, and the National Association of Chain Drug 
Stores. They also prove that this bill is bicameral in its design, as 
well as bipartisan.
  By passing this bill, we have taken a major step toward getting 
unwanted prescription drugs out of medicine cabinets and off our 
streets. We have given State, local, and private groups more authority 
to serve their communities, and we have done so in a cost-free manner.
  I believe the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act exemplifies 
the type of bipartisan legislation Congress should look to pass. I 
thank my colleagues again for supporting it unanimously, and I look 
forward to it becoming law.

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