Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. I thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chairman Goodlatte, and Mr. Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, for their leadership in bringing this bill to the floor today.

Mr. Chairman, I am also pleased to be here in the spirit of bipartisanship because, as you all know, this problem affects all Members' districts. It is a problem that sheriffs and local law enforcement in my district deal with on a daily basis. Admittedly, my amendment is not the silver bullet that will end this epidemic, but it is a commonsense step in the right direction, something we can take to address the problem at its roots, which is within the home.

The National Institutes of Health estimates that 800,000 children between the ages of 12 and 17 try opioids for the first time each year and that 70 percent of the opioids obtained by kids are from their families, friends, and relatives. It also found that 62 percent of kids say prescription medicines are easy to get from their families' medicine cabinets and that one in two kids, alarmingly, thinks pills are available everywhere.

In response to these statistics, my amendment would allow the State and local governments to invest in programs that utilize secure containers for prescription drugs. It is important to note that this amendment does not mandate such programs; it merely makes available the opportunity should local governments voluntarily choose to take advantage of the program.

While there may not be an easy fix to cure all of the alarming statistics, there are things that we can do and have done. In fact, in the 1960s, children were dying at an alarming rate from ingesting medications that were not meant for them. Congress responded, and it responded by passing the Poisoning Prevention Packaging Act of 1970, which requires child-resistant caps for a number of different medications. That was the last time major changes were made to drug containers.

As we all know, technology has advanced significantly in every category since 1970. Today, new technologies exist that make it harder to steal medications out of the family medicine cabinet, but they are not widely used. Secure containers, clearly, will not fix this problem, but they will act as a deterrent to the source of the problem.

As a father of three, I know that kids face all sorts of pressures at school and in their daily lives. Oftentimes, they don't respond in the appropriate way, and they sometimes give in to those pressures. That doesn't make them bad kids, but we cannot continue to turn a blind eye in denial while it is happening. My amendment would allow for the implementation and the development of a program that utilizes secure containers for prescription drugs.

This is a commonsense solution that addresses a problem at its source. It is a common practice to lock up things that we deem valuable and that could be dangerous to others. We lock up our cars, we lock up our bikes, we lock the doors of our homes; some of us may even lock the drawers of our desks or lock up valuables and weapons in safe places in our homes. Therefore, it only makes sense when it comes to dangerous pills that are being stolen and that are leading us down dangerous paths to addiction, that we lock up these medicines and deter them from being stolen in the first place.

This is not a mandate and it is not a directive for anyone to do this. My amendment simply allows States and localities to utilize funds or programs that provide for secure containers. Again, it is not to be considered the be-all and end-all solution, but it is a genuine step in the right direction to thwart this tragic epidemic.

I urge all Members to support my amendment.

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Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

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Mr. BISHOP of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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