Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. Vitter, and Mr. Alexander):

S. 3575. A bill to amend and reauthorize the controlled substance monitoring program under section 3990 of the Public Health Service Act and to authorize the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to share information about the use of controlled substances by veterans with State prescription monitoring programs to prevent misuse and diversion of prescription medicines; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the nonmedical use and abuse of prescription drugs is a serious and growing public health problem in this country. The 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that more than 15 million Americans had used prescription psychotherapeutic drugs non-medically in the past year. That is more than 6 percent of the U.S. population. More than 20 percent of Americans had abused these drugs during their lifetime. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency, SAMHSA, estimates that half a million residents in my home State of Illinois are using prescription drugs illegally and in ways that can lead to dependence and even death.

Since 1999, abuse, misuse, and overdose of prescription drugs has increased, and the health consequences are significant. Each year, more than 20,000 people in the United States die from drug overdose. Illinois hospitals report an increase in patients visiting Emergency Departments because of prescription drug misuse. From 2003 to 2007, Chicago area hospitals saw the number of visits for pain medication misuse more than double and visits for sedative misuse quadruple.

The trends among teens are especially worrisome. Prescription pain relievers are the second most common drugs used as gateway drugs among teens. Over the past decade, there has been a 300 percent increase in the number of teens seeking treatment for addiction to prescription painkillers.

To address this threat to public health, my colleague Senator Sessions and I worked together to enact Public Law 109-60, the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act of 2005, NASPER. This program provides grants through the Department of Health and Human Services to establish or improve State-based prescription drug monitoring programs, PDMPs. The first grants were awarded through NASPER beginning in fiscal year 09, and currently over 40 States are operating PDMPs or have enacted legislation to establish them.

While each State's program is unique, in general they require that pharmacies, physicians or both submit information to a central office within the State on prescriptions dispensed for certain controlled substances--narcotics, stimulants, sedatives, depressants, etc. By creating these systems, States can ensure that health care providers, law enforcement officials and other regulatory and licensing bodies have access to accurate, timely prescription history information as permitted by law.

The data in these systems can be used for many purposes: to assist in the early identification of patients at risk for addiction, prevent patients from doctor shopping, and help with investigations of drug diversion and errant prescribing or dispensing practices by pharmacists or medical providers.

In my home State of Illinois, the State PDMP is called Prescription Information Library, PIL. The State was awarded a NASPER grant in fiscal year 09, which allowed it to expand and improve its program. In the month of June 2010 alone, the PIL website was used by over 3,600 doctors, pharmacists and other registered users who made over 24,000 visits to the site. In addition, the number of law enforcement requests for information from PIL increased from 16 in 2007 to 321 in 2009. Use of the program continues to grow--in the first 6 months of 2010, law enforcement officials have already made 271 requests for information from the database. The growth of the Illinois program demonstrates that it is valuable tool for protecting public health and safety by identifying people at risk for prescription drug abuse and doctors who betray the high ethical standards of their profession by over or incorrectly prescribing prescription drugs.

Today, along with Senator SESSIONS and several other colleagues, I am introducing the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reposing Reauthorization Act of 2010. This bill reauthorizes and extends this vital program for 5 more years at $15 million for fiscal year 2011 and $10 million each year thereafter. It also makes small changes to improve and strengthen the program, including allowing grants to be made available to States to plan or maintain a PDMP in addition to establishing or improving a program; requiring States to help educate medical providers about the benefits of the systems and facilitate their use of them; requiring, States to report aggregate data to the Secretary to allow for evaluation of the success of the program; allowing participation by the territories; and permitting the Department of Veterans Affairs to share information about the use of controlled substance by veterans with State PDMPs.

Reauthorizing the NASPER program for another 5 years with these changes to improve its operation will assist States in combating abuse and misuse of prescription drugs. This common-sense legislation has bipartisan support, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact it into law.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record

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