Dispose Unused Medications and Prescription Opioids Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, you are aware, as we all are, of the scourge of opioid abuse in this country. It is horrible. It is terrible. We sometimes lose as many as 50,000 of our people a year.

And as you also know, many people who become addicted to opioids don't necessarily buy the opioids on the street. They get the opioids from family and friends. So one of the best things you can do to try to stop the scourge of opioid abuse is to clear out your medicine cabinet so that people aren't tempted to use the drugs. Turn them in, if they have been prescribed to you, and you don't need them any longer.

To make this easier, our DEA, as you know, Mr. President, holds pretty regularly what we call Take Back Days. On a Take Back Day, any person can go into his or her medicine cabinet, find drugs, including opioids, that they are not using anymore, that could be dangerous if abused, and they can take those unused medications and drop them off at a previously announced DEA drop site.

Take Back Day is this Saturday, April 24. I want to encourage all Americans and Louisianans to do this. Go through your medicine cabinet. If you have opioids that have been prescribed to you--legally, of course--and you don't need them any longer, don't just leave them hanging around. Turn them in, please.

But not every day is Take Back Day, and last year Congress, in its wisdom, passed a law, a very good law, instructing the Department of Veterans Affairs to ask--well, actually to require--VA medical centers to have these drop boxes permanently so that American veterans can throw away medications, including but not limited to opioids, that they don't need. And it has worked out really well.

The question that occurred to me after we passed the bill was why limit that kind of access only to our veterans. So I have a bill to basically open up the Veterans Administration drop boxes for unused drugs, including but not limited to opioids, at VA medical centers to anybody who wants to go get rid of these unused drugs at any time. You don't have to wait until Take Back Day. This would be a permanent program.

The name of the bill is the Dispose Unused Medications and Prescription Opioids Act. And before I offer this bill up, let me just give one more plug. I would remind everyone that this Saturday, April 24, is Take Back Day. If you have unused medications, including opioids, that you want to get rid of, it will have been publicized in your community by the DEA. You can go drop them off, and I hope people will do that.

957, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

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