[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 8, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1326-S1328]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               COMPREHENSIVE ADDICTION AND RECOVERY BILL

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am pleased to be on the floor to 
speak again in support of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, 
which the Senate will consider and I hope approve this week. It is a 
long overdue measure to address the public health hurricane, a crisis 
we face in this country. It is every bit as real and threatening as 
threats from abroad. In fact, I have just now come from a hearing of 
the Armed Services Committee, where I had the opportunity to question 
some of our Nation's leading military experts, including the head of 
our Special Operations Command, General Votel, about the threat posed 
by illicit substances, such as heroin, to this country. The testimony 
was that those substances, when they come to this country, follow the 
same route as terrorists, illicit arms, and other military threats to 
this Nation.
  The bipartisan support for the measure before us is a sign of the 
meaningful strides that this Nation has taken, but more is necessary to 
be done toward ending the epidemic of heroin addiction and prescription 
drug abuse. It is a danger to every community across the country, big 
cities and towns in Connecticut, suburban and urban. Every race and 
religion, ethnic group, and demographic is potentially a victim.
  I have heard from our colleagues across the country that this crisis 
truly has proportions on a par with any of the tornadoes, floods or 
hurricanes we have seen as natural disasters. Abuse and addiction are 
crippling communities around the country, shattering families, and 
imposing enormous financial and human costs.
  In my home State of Connecticut, overdose deaths have steadily 
increased, as they have throughout the Nation, and they now surpass 
automobile crashes as the leading cause of injury-related death for 
Americans between the ages of 25 and 64. Connecticut saw more than 700 
overdose deaths in 2015. Without a doubt, we must act.
  Many communities across Connecticut and our country already have 
taken steps and have dedicated resources to stopping the epidemic of 
heroin addiction and prescription drug overuse. I am very privileged to 
welcome a number of those communities to the Senate today. They are 
represented by mayors from major cities in Connecticut: Mayor Joe Ganim 
of Bridgeport, Mayor O'Leary of Waterbury, Mayor Moran of Manchester, 
along with local officials from Bridgeport, Groton, Manchester, New 
Haven, South Windsor, and the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
a list of officials I just referred to.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:


                        Bridgeport City Council

       Joe Ganim (mayor), Evette Brantley, Scott Burns, Milita 
     Feliciano, Tom Caudett, Jeanette Herron, Michelle Lyons, Gina 
     Malheiro, Tom McCarthy, Aides Nieves, John Olson, Anthony 
     Paoletto, Richard Salter, Neenah Smith, AmyMarie Vizzo-
     Paniccia.


                                 Groton

       Bonnie Nault, Harry Watson.


                        Manchester Town Council

       Jay Moran (mayor), Margaret Hackett, Patrick Greene.


                         New Haven City Council

       Delphine Clyburn, Frank Douglass, Alberta Gibbs, Rosa 
     Ferraro Santana, Brian Wingate.


                       South Windsor Town Manager

       Matt Galligan.


                Connecticut Conference of Municipalities

       Ron Thomas, Kevin Maloney.


                               Waterbury

       Neil O'Leary (mayor).

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. They have shown by their actions they are willing to 
not only talk the talk but actually walk the walk. I participated with 
Mayor Ganim over the weekend in a public press conference, noting the 
truly extraordinary and excellent work by their drug task force to 
stop, apprehend, arrest, and prosecute a major drug ring in the city of 
Bridgeport.
  I have talked to Mayor O'Leary about efforts in Waterbury and 
throughout his region--a very responsible and effective action he took 
as police chief of Waterbury--but we know we are not going to arrest 
our way out of this crisis. Law enforcement needs more effective 
support and resources. There is no way around the need for supporting 
and enhancing the operations of our local, State, and Federal law 
enforcement officials--in fact, increasing the partnership and 
cooperation among them, as was so dramatically shown by the successful 
law enforcement in the city of Bridgeport against this drug ring last 
week. All have a role and all of their cooperation is necessary.

[[Page S1327]]

  All of us have a responsibility to support their work, but the bill 
before us also recognizes that we are not going to arrest or jail our 
way out of this crisis. In fact, it provides resources for treatment 
and services and a more effective means of delivering Narcan, which can 
literally be a lifesaver, bringing overdose victims back from the brink 
of death.
  What I have heard in roundtables I have conducted around the State of 
Connecticut is the need for those additional steps, not focusing on any 
one of them but a multifaceted effort, as this bill reflects. In the 
roundtables I have conducted, I have heard from law enforcement 
professionals, first responders, doctors, addiction specialists, 
elected officials, and many others, including recovering addicts and 
their families. Their stories are riveting and heartbreaking about the 
effects of addiction, beginning with powerful prescription painkillers 
for routine surgery, broken ankles or wrists, and wisdom teeth that 
have been removed. There was overprescription of 20 pills, 30 pills, 
when 2 pills or 3 pills would have been sufficient, and those pills are 
the gateway to more serious addiction or they find their way onto the 
street where they fuel the addiction of others and lead to addiction to 
heroin, which often is cheaper than the prescription pills.
  Those stories I have heard from around our State, stories from people 
struggling with addiction or who have lost a loved one to this disease, 
add to the public record that exists. That record includes a story that 
appeared within the past week or so in the New London Day. It talks 
about two childhood friends, Nat and Joe. Both of them struggled with 
heroin addiction, but they are now in recovery. Between them, they have 
lost several friends, a former girlfriend, and a stepbrother to 
overdoses, and each has a sibling who has also become an addict. Nat is 
now 27 and the father of two. He said:

       I started taking pills when I was 19 or 20 and was stressed 
     out when I was going through a custody battle over my son. 
     Somebody said to try one, and then I was taking them a couple 
     of times a week and then every day I was buying off the 
     street. It was out of control. It got so that I couldn't work 
     without drugs.

  The same happened to Nat's friend Joe with Percocet. He described how 
he took a few pills, liked the feeling, and rapidly began to take drugs 
with other friends, including OxyContin and heroin.
  Another article in the Waterbury Republican American told the story 
of Thomas Obst, who was prescribed OxyContin for an eye injury. When he 
later suffered from withdrawal symptoms, he turned to heroin to keep 
himself from suffering. He explained:

       You never know what a street drug is mixed with, but it's 
     less expensive . . . someone mentioned heroin. I thought I 
     could control it.

  Thomas eventually overdosed, but his life was saved by a brave State 
Trooper named Josh Sawyer, who was able to administer naloxone. This 
drug can be a lifesaver if it is available to police--as it was in this 
instance--and first responders and firefighters. Unfortunately, its 
price has skyrocketed, and it is increasingly in short supply.
  These stories from Connecticut are hardly unique. Our colleagues know 
they are happening in their communities. They know overdose deaths are 
skyrocketing, that addiction is increasing, and that the toll taken on 
their States and our communities is absolutely horrendous.
  During our roundtable in Bridgeport last Friday, a manager of the 
Bridgeport Recovery Community Center explained the obstacles that 
people afflicted with addiction face in trying to obtain treatment this 
way:

       Insurers will dictate what they will and will not pay for. 
     You have to continually prove that this person is allowed to 
     stay. You must make daily phone calls to plead your case.

  When treatment is made available, there should be no wrong door; 
there should be no harassing need to demonstrate the problem and the 
need for treatment. We need more availability of insurance and 
increasing recognition that addiction is not a stigma, it is an 
affliction, a disease, every bit as much so as any other disease. And 
supplies of the drugs that can help treat that addiction--SUBOXONE, for 
example--have to be made available.
  The legislation before us would provide more treatment, more beds, 
but it is only a down payment, only a beginning. There is truly a need 
for recognition that we face a public health hurricane and that this 
crisis, a spreading epidemic, will only become worse if we fail to 
provide more assistance.
  This bill strengthens State programs like Connecticut's that are 
already in place, including State prescription drug monitoring programs 
as well as training for law enforcement and emergency responders in the 
use of Narcan. It provides important recovery support services for 
those struggling with addiction, and it would strengthen existing 
Federal programs, such as the DEA's drug take-back program.
  The bill also provides more support for substance abuse treatment 
services for incarcerated individuals. We know a lot of people in 
prison today are there because of their addiction. If they are to 
emerge successfully from incarceration, they need that support and 
assistance to break the grip of addiction.
  As important as this bill is, I agree with many of my colleagues--and 
they have spoken on the floor--that it is far less effective than it 
could be without the $600 million supplemental appropriations that I 
have advocated and fought to pass. I am disappointed the amendment of 
Senator Shaheen, which I spearheaded and cosponsored, was not included 
in this measure, and I look forward to continuing to fight for the 
resources necessary to make this fight real.
  I want to thank all of my colleagues, including Senator Whitehouse 
and others, for incorporating a bipartisan provision I wrote with 
Senator Coats called the Expanding Access to Prescription Drug 
Monitoring Programs Act. This provision will allow nurse practitioners 
and physician assistants to access the information they need. 
Specifically, they would be able to access State prescription drug 
monitoring programs to consult a patient's prescription opioid history 
and thereby determine if a patient has a history of addiction or 
receiving multiple prescriptions from multiple sources.
  I know from my decade and a half of work in this area how doctor 
shopping and other abuses can in fact exacerbate this problem of 
addiction and prescription drug abuse. Although nurse practitioners and 
physician assistants wrote over 7 million opioid prescriptions in 2013, 
few States permit them to consult and submit prescribing data to these 
important State databases. Allowing these providers to access more 
information about patient history enables them to address potential 
addiction before--and I stress ``before''--it becomes a serious 
problem.
  I hope this body will adopt a number of other amendments that I have 
proposed, including the one Senator Markey and I have spearheaded, 
amendment No. 3382, prescriber education. Prescriber education is 
crucial.
  In a roundtable I held at the Yale medical school, a number of the 
docs told me that now--only recently--are there sufficient education 
and training and specific courses devoted to pain management and 
prescription discipline. Many doctors now lack that education, and our 
amendment would require that training as a condition for continued--Mr. 
President, I ask unanimous consent for a few more minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. It would provide as a condition that this training be 
conducted before any doctor receives a renewal of his or her license by 
the Drug Enforcement Administration.
  To help our veterans, an amendment that I have offered, No. 3438, 
would eliminate naloxone copays for our veterans. As ranking member of 
the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I have seen how the opioid epidemic 
has affected our veterans. It is truly devastating. Safe prescribing of 
opioids is vital because many veterans, especially those returning from 
combat, have serious pain issues that must be addressed, but they must 
be addressed safely, with care and caution about the dangers of 
addiction.
  I appreciate our dedication to addressing this problem. I hope that 
it will be bipartisan and that our approval this week will match the 
urgency of this problem in communities around the State of Connecticut 
and around this country. The solution to this problem is long overdue 
for action,

[[Page S1328]]

and I look forward to this next step--only one of many that have to be 
taken--in aiding our law enforcers, our health care providers, our 
public officials, such as our representatives today on the Hill, in 
moving forward and addressing this problem.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________