Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said on Tuesday that legislators must empower doctors and pharmacists with tools to ensure that drugs are properly prescribed and administered to prevent abuse.
Burgess, the vice chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired a hearing that explored the growing problem of heroin and prescription drug abuse across the nation.
“As we know, the abuse of prescription drugs and illegal drugs such as heroin have plagued our nation for decades,” Burgess said. “However, over the last several months, there have been increasing reports that prescription drug and heroin abuse in communities around the country continue to grow. Sadly, those reports indicate that overdose deaths as a result of prescription drug and heroin abuse are also on the rise. Families have lost sons and daughters and fathers and mothers to this addiction.”
Abuse of prescription drugs kills more than 16,000 people each year, and heroin use increased by 79 percent from 2007 to 2012, according to data from federal agencies.
“U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder declared recently that heroin abuse constitutes ‘an urgent and growing public health crisis,'” Burgess said. “Certainly, there is a law enforcement aspect to solving this problem and stopping the bad actors who illegally distribute prescription drugs or traffic heroin. But the other part of the equation is treating addiction to prescription drugs and heroin – and preventing deaths. The answer to a burgeoning heroin epidemic, as the administration has called it, is not to wage a war on all opioids. To address a complex issue, the solution will not be simple.”
Those who abuse prescription drugs typically suffer from an underlying mental illness, Burgess said, which also must be diagnosed and treated.
“Many Americans also suffer from chronic and debilitating pain,” Burgess said. “It is important to remember the millions of individuals who safely use opioids under the guidance of their physicians, pain that we all hope us or a loved one would never suffer.”
The federal government allocates $25 billion to drug control programs each year, Burgess said, of which $10 billion is directed toward drug abuse prevention and treatment programs across 19 agencies.
The purpose of the hearing was to question experts on which policies have worked, and which have not.
“With 19 agencies having a hand in over 70 drug control programs – is this working? What can we do better? Oversight by the federal agencies is also an important issue, as significant funding is block granted to states for treatment programs,” Burgess said.