[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 116 (Wednesday, August 1, 2012)]
[House]
[Pages H5531-H5532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Keating) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KEATING. I would like to thank Congressman Rahall for organizing 
this morning-hour on prescription drug abuse. I would also like to 
thank Chairman Rogers for his work as well as Congresswoman Mary Bono 
Mack, Congressman Steve Lynch, and all Members with the Prescription 
Drug Abuse Caucus.
  Prescription drug abuse is defined now as an epidemic in this 
country, and the cost of this epidemic is more than $70 billion a year. 
This is by no means just a criminal issue, and that's where the stigma 
sometimes makes this issue more difficult. It is, indeed, a public 
health issue, and for this reason Congress needs to step in.
  Painkillers account for the country's fastest growing area of drug 
abuse, which is ahead of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. 
Throughout my 12-year career as a Norfolk County district attorney in 
Massachusetts, the susceptibility of new users, particularly of 
teenagers, to these drugs has been a recurring theme. As district 
attorney, I have seen in concrete terms that this scourge goes across 
every social and economic boundary that exists.
  I have seen law enforcement officials, while on duty and who were 
involved in automobile accidents, take these painkillers, become 
addicted and actually go out with their guns and rob--armed robbery--
banks and other institutions in order to just try and feed their 
habits. I've seen real estate professionals get involved and go to open 
houses just to search medicine cabinets in order to fulfill their 
habits. I have also seen young people begin addictions and abuses of 
prescription drugs from their families' medicine cabinets, finding that 
later on they cannot afford their habits, and move to a cheaper, purer 
form of heroin.

                              {time}  1040

  I've seen the public health effects of this as well. I've seen the 
HIV disease spread to people. I've seen 14-year-old girls with 
hepatitis C as a result of trying to deal with this scourge that is an 
epidemic around our country.
  In Massachusetts alone, 1.7 people every day die of an opiate-
derivative overdose. In 2010, the National Institute of Drug Abuse 
showed that 2.7 percent of eighth-graders, 7.7 percent of 10th-graders, 
and 8 percent of 12th-graders abused Vicodin. Over 2 percent of eighth-
graders, almost 5 percent of 10th-graders, and over 5 percent of 12th-
graders abused OxyContin for nonmedical purposes at least once in the 
year prior to that survey. This is why I've introduced the Stop 
Tampering of Prescription Pills Act, the STOPP Act of 2012, with 
Chairman Rogers, Congresswoman Bono Mack, and my other colleagues.
  Currently, tamper-resistant mechanisms are in use for some drugs, but 
this bill is the first of its kind Federal legislation to put a clear 
pathway for others to come to market. The process outlined in the bill 
applies both to brand name and generic drugs, both to time-release and 
to immediate-release pills. Initially, we will incentivize the use of 
these tamper-resistant processes. Then, in time, they'll be required. 
This bill is not a silver bullet by any stretch of the imagination, but

[[Page H5532]]

it is a very important piece in preventing new users from abusing 
painkillers and safeguarding against overdose. Just as seatbelts and 
airbags in cars cannot prevent all car accidents, tamper-resistant 
formulations will not prevent all instances of drug abuse, but it is a 
necessary tool in protecting vulnerable populations like the 
adolescents I have spoken about.
  With this bill, we're also preparing for the potential onslaught of 
pure hydrocodone pills. These are currently being developed, and 
without proper physical and pharmaceutical barriers in place to prevent 
the tampering of these painkillers, this potential advent of pure 
hydrocodone will dramatically increase the already alarming rates of 
abuse and addiction. The bill would mandate the tamper resistance of 
these pills, as well as many others.
  These pills provide great relief for many Americans in terms of 
extreme pain, but we must do something about another type of pain, a 
terminal pain, a pain that family members and loved ones feel when they 
have lost someone to the disease that results in this type of 
addiction.
  I encourage all my colleagues in the House to cosponsor H.R. 6160, 
and further encourage the development of these tamper-resistant 
mechanisms. It's not a silver bullet, but it's an important first step.

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