Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2005

OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - March 09, 2006)

Mr. LYNCH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, first of all, I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana and the gentleman from Maryland on their leadership on this issue.

Mr. Chairman, the amendment that I have offered simply requests that the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy ask the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study to examine certain aspects of iatrogenic addiction, which is associated with prescription drugs like OxyContin.

Back in September, our Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs For Government Reform held a field hearing in Boston and it regarded the regulation of prescription drugs such as OxyContin. One of the primary concerns raised at those hearings by the experts was that they testified that the lack of information on the addictiveness of these type of drugs has created a great problem in society.

For this reason, the amendment calls for a study that would first look at the rate and impact of iatrogenic addiction; that is, addiction to properly prescribed prescription drugs, which is associated with the use of prescription drugs like OxyContin.

Iatrogenic addiction is addiction which occurs as a result of prescribed medical care. These are the accidental addicts, who, through no fault of their own, become hopelessly addicted to drugs like OxyContin, and in effect these individuals become customers for life.

Because there are some legitimate medicinal uses for some of these painkillers, it is increasingly difficult to balance the need of those people who are desperately in need of these drugs, to try to balance that against the problems of addiction. For this reason, it is necessary to have the information on addictiveness of drugs associated with iatrogenic addiction, including OxyContin.

I want to relate briefly, Mr. Chairman, a story of a young woman, and this is just one example of thousands, a young woman in my district from a good family who went to the dentist's office with tooth pain.

After the tooth extraction, she was given a prescription of OxyContin, and, after completing that, exhausting that prescription, she went back again for an additional prescription. Sometime thereafter, she went back in, complaining of additional tooth pain and had another tooth extracted, and again was given another prescription of OxyContin. It happened a third time.

To make a long story short, I met this young woman during an effort to create a detox center in my district, and she confesses now in rehab that she had become addicted to the first couple of prescriptions and she went back, falsely claiming tooth pain, just so she could get additional prescriptions for OxyContin. She became hopelessly addicted to OxyContin through no fault of her own.

Another observation in my own district, it is quite common, traveling to pharmacies in the malls or drugstores in my local downtown area, it is not uncommon to see big signs in the front windows of my pharmacies that say, "We do not carry OxyContin on the premises." In other words, please don't rob us.

There have been so many robberies trying to acquire this drug of addicts that now the pharmacies are just saying we don't carry it on the premises, do not rob us. I think it is a sad statement of the addictive quality of this drug and also our inability to police it.

At this point, there are no studies that help us understand why certain people become addicted, while others don't, to drugs like OxyContin. By conducting this study, we will be better able to understand how the brain interacts with this drug.

Secondly, the study will look at the relative addictiveness of prescription drugs such as OxyContin when compared with other pain killers as well as other controlled substances under Schedule I and Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Mr. Souder and Mr. Cummings again for their leadership on this effort. I think they too are shining examples of bipartisanship on an issue that is very important to the American people.

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

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Mr. Chairman, the last two points in closing: we have had to in my district open up two brand-new adolescent, one adolescent boys facility to deal with this problem and one adolescent girls facility.

I have extensive waiting lists at both facilities trying to deal with this problem. I think that somewhere down the line we have to address the fundamental question in this country about how addictive, how addictive are we going to let drugs become that are sold over the counter commercially. Because, eventually, we have to realize that there is a commercial advantage to selling an addictive drug.

And those drug companies, they are creating customers for life here who have no other alternative.

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