2016 Call to Action: Combating Opioid Abuse

Floor Speech

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Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, in the United States, 2.1 million people suffer from dependency and addiction to prescription opioid drugs. Eighty percent of the world's pain pills are consumed in the United States, but we only have 5 percent of the world's population. This is an epidemic that reaches every corner of our Nation, transcending regional, State, community, and neighborhood lines. More people died from drug overdose in 2014 than ever before. Over 60 percent of those deaths involved the use of an opioid. Seventy-eight Americans die every single day from an opioid overdose. There are more people dying from prescription drug overdoses than from car accidents.

This week, the House is considering 15 bipartisan measures that seek to address some of the widespread problems that have caused and perpetuated this national crisis; but as we look at treatment options and support for those who are dealing with this addiction, it is important that we actually focus on the root cause of the problem.

We have seen for decades major pharmaceutical companies that have misled the FDA, doctors, and patients about the safety and risks of opioid dependence on commonly prescribed prescription drugs in their efforts to sell more drugs. Three top executives from Purdue Pharma even pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Just last week, the LA Times revealed how Purdue Pharma has made over $31 billion off of OxyContin, America's best-selling painkiller, by advertising the drug's 12-hour pain relief. Investigations have found that for many people the drug actually doesn't last for 12 hours. In fact, it wears off hours earlier for most people. This often leads to ``excruciating symptoms of withdrawal, including an intense craving for the drug.''

Despite multiple complaints from doctors, sales representatives, and independent research showing that many patients don't experience this 12-hour pain relief, the company has continued to market the drug's 12- hour relief and is even encouraging doctors to prescribe stronger doses when patients complain about its shortened effects. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 7 million Americans have abused OxyContin.

Many abusers then turn to heroin, which is made from the same poppy plant and has the same effect. After people are addicted to opioid prescription drugs, they turn to heroin when they can't get their hands on those pills. To give you some context, one 60-milligram pill costs, on average, around $60. To get the very same amount of heroin, you will pay one-tenth of the price.

The problems created by companies like Purdue are felt deeply by families all across the country. It is happening to our police officers, to teachers, to nurses, and to others in our communities who all share the same stories. They used to take prescription drugs, but now they inject heroin. In my home State of Hawaii, the rate of pain medicine abuse is more than 10 percent above the national average. According to the Hawaii State Department of Health data, opioid-related deaths have increased 133 percent from 2000 to 2016.

Veterans, people who have served our country in uniform, have been disproportionately impacted by this epidemic. I have heard from some of my friends and fellow veterans of how, during their visits to the VA in their seeking treatment, even after telling their doctors ``I don't want drugs,'' they received prescriptions for those drugs. Up until recently, the VA prescribed opioids almost exclusively to veterans who were experiencing chronic pain.

Prescriptions for opiates spiked by 270 percent over 12 years, according to the 2013 analysis by the Center for Investigative Reporting. This led to addictions and to a fatal overdose rate amongst veterans at a rate of twice the national average. The VA is beginning to start to change some of its practices by offering alternative modes of treatment, but even so, that change is not comprehensive and it is not happening everywhere across the country.

A national health crisis of this magnitude requires leadership, commitment, resolve, and partnership at every level of government, within our medical community and within our community itself. I urge my colleagues to join me in calling for further action to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable that are profiting off of America's addiction problems, to hold doctors accountable who are irresponsibly overprescribing these addictive drugs, and to focus instead on finding real solutions that can truly help people.

I urge the U.S. Surgeon General to make combating opioid abuse the 2016 Call to Action, which is a yearly initiative that helps to stimulate nationwide action to solve a major public health program in the U.S. In the past few years, the national Call to Action has addressed exercise and walkable communities, skin cancer prevention, breastfeeding, deep vein thrombosis, and underage drinking. With 78 Americans dying every single day from opioid overdose, this is an issue that demands our national attention and action.

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