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




                   PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague, Mr. 
Keating, for his leadership on this issue.
  I rise this morning, along with several of my colleagues, Mr. Rahall 
and Mr. Keating, whom you just heard, and also Chairman Rogers, to talk 
about the very important issue of prescription drug abuse in America.
  Prescription drugs are responsible for the fastest growing area of 
drug abuse in this country, ahead of cocaine, heroine, 
methamphetamines, and other drugs. In fact, according to the Centers 
for Disease Control in Atlanta, prescription drugs cause most of the 
more than 26,000 fatal overdoses that we see each year. Despite this 
alarming number, there exists a lack of knowledge about this particular 
type of substance abuse that prevents many people from identifying it 
as the problem that it is, and that in turn makes it more difficult to 
achieve a real solution.
  Prescription drug abuse is an epidemic in this country plain and 
simple, and it must be dealt with as such. While prescription drug 
medication can help people suffering from a range of chronic and 
temporary conditions, for many others, exposure to pain medication, 
whether prescribed or obtained through other means, can be the 
beginning of a long and tragic battle with addiction. As you heard from 
previous speakers, from Massachusetts to West Virginia to Kentucky and 
to California, many of my constituents also struggle with prescription 
drug addiction and its consequences. Those people are homemakers, they 
are professionals, they are students and laborers. Addiction does not 
discriminate.
  Abuse of prescription medicine, especially opioid pain relievers, is 
a major problem nationally and in Massachusetts, where deaths, 
emergency room episodes, and admissions for treatment related to non-
heroin opioids has skyrocketed in recent years. In fact, 99 percent of 
individuals entering treatment facilities who report heroin use started 
with a prescription medication like OxyContin.
  OxyContin is a narcotic painkiller which has started too many people 
on this terrible journey to addiction. It is a drug that by design is 
inherently so powerfully addictive that it actually changes the brain 
over long periods of treatment, and it creates customers for life. It 
creates addicts. OxyContin is a drug that has caused so much grief to 
individuals, families, and communities, has caused so much pain and 
suffering, that earlier this year the nation of Canada removed it from 
the market. I commend them for that. I, in fact, filed a bill in May of 
2005 to do exactly the same thing in the United States, but because of 
the powerful lobbying efforts of the drug companies, that legislation 
was not successful. That's a big part of the problem.
  In the United States, we continue to put corporate profit ahead of 
personal loss. Reports of the abuse of OxyContin surfaced soon after 
its introduction in 1996, a year in which Purdue Pharma, the 
manufacturer of OxyContin, made $1 billion on the drug. In 2007, Purdue 
Pharma pled guilty to criminal charges that they intentionally misled 
doctors, Federal regulators, and patients in regard to the addictive 
nature of their gold-mine drug in order to boost their profits. Despite 
its troubled history, OxyContin is still available. In 2011, it earned 
$2.8 billion in profits for the company.
  In addressing the problem, we need to consider the range of 
contributing factors. We need to look at the composition of the drugs 
and the marketing of these addictive drugs and the regulatory approval 
process. There are two measures that I want to note here: one, there 
has been a significant effort to reformulate this drug so that it is 
less susceptible to abuse. I commend the drug-makers on that effort. 
The second issue is with BlueCross BlueShield, which has instituted a 
limiting factor. It requires a robust reevaluation of any patient who 
is being prescribed OxyContin over a period of time. I think that is 
one of the best decisions by an insurance company in this country in 
some time.
  I commend my colleagues on the Congressional Prescription Drug Abuse 
Caucus for their legislative efforts, and I look forward to continuing 
to work with them on this very important issue.

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