Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak in support of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. This bill represents an important step in tackling the growing crisis of prescription drug and heroin addiction in this country. I thank my colleagues, especially the original sponsors of this bill. Senator Whitehouse, Senator Portman, Senator Ayotte, and I have worked together on this legislation for a number of years.

Drug overdoses from opioids now claim more lives than car accidents every year. That is a pretty shocking statistic that I don't think most Americans would expect. The crisis is ripping apart families from all different backgrounds, and with deaths increasing nearly sixfold since the year 2000, it is a crisis on the rise. This deadly trend struck at the heart of Minnesota. Last year alone, 336 Minnesotans died after overdosing on opioids.

Since I started working on this bill, I have heard from people in communities across my State. In Montevideo, 12-year-olds were courted by pushers who said: Hey, kids. If you go in and check your parents' medicine cabinets--I'll give you a list--and bring us their prescription drugs, we will give you a can of beer. That happened in Montevideo, MN.

Shelly Elkington shared her tragic story. Her daughter, Casey Jo, was a champion swimmer and hoped to study nursing like her mom, but in 2008 she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and that is when she started taking opioids for pain relief. As we know, four out of five heroin users started out by misusing prescription pain killers, and in the end the very pills that were supposed to ease Casey Jo's pain didn't work. She became addicted and eventually turned to heroin and other drugs, and basically this addiction hijacked her life. She is no longer with us.

This is the story for far too many people. In one 7,000-person town in Minnesota, 3 young people died of opioid overdoses in just 6 months in 2013.

Our final bill includes a number of proven strategies to help States and local communities in the fight against addiction, and one of the most important provisions in it for me is looking at solutions for unused prescription drugs. Senator Cornyn and I passed a bill back in 2010 and finally got the rules out after advocating for them from the DEA, I believe for 4 years, and we are finally starting to see some pharmacies, such as Walgreens, voluntarily taking back unused prescription drugs. This bill helps to build on that work.

CARA also increases the availability of naloxone, which we know can be used in overdoses, and, of course, one of the most important things in this bill is a start at prescription drug monitoring. I emphasize that it is a start because I think a lot more needs to be done with prescription drug monitoring. I would have liked to have done it in this bill, but now we need to move on and get something done.

Today, I will be introducing a bill with Senator King and Senator Manchin to actually do something about prescription drug monitoring, and that is requiring individual States to put in place prescription drug monitoring programs and actually submit the data. I have learned-- having Hazelden in my State--that some States have a program, but it just means doctors have to sign up. It doesn't actually mean that they actually record information or that they share it with other doctors. It doesn't even mean they share it between States. Our bill would require States that receive Federal funding to combat opioid abuse to ensure that their prescription drug monitoring complies with certain standards so that we can crack down on this addiction before it starts. It would require prescribers to consult with the PDMPs before they hand out prescriptions, require dispensers to report back within 24 hours of distribution, and would provide for the proactive notification of health care professionals when patterns indicative of opioid abuse are detected. For people who travel across State lines, it would also require States to share information.

Here is an example: There was a patient at Hazelden Betty Ford who had 108 prescriptions for painkillers filled by more than 85 different prescribers. Think about that: 85 different medical professionals had prescribed these drugs.

I met a rehab guy up in Moorhead who had a patient with a similar story, who had filled prescriptions from doctors in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. That is what is going on. If we don't require States to share information with other States, it is as if we don't really have a prescription drug program to begin with.

CARA is an important bill, but there are two things that we need to change in order to improve the work we are doing in Congress. No. 1 is the money for treatment that I know Senator Schumer just addressed, which is in Senator Shaheen's bill, which would appropriate emergency funding and, second, not just say we are doing something about prescription drug monitoring but actually do something about prescription drug monitoring, and that is why I am introducing this bill today.

There is a lot of work ahead, but I want to conclude my remarks by acknowledging the major step we are taking by passing the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act and sending it to the President's desk to be signed into law.

I thank my colleagues for their support.

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