Portman continues push to stop prescription drug, heroin abuse

Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) continued to lay out the case for his heroin bill, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, Tuesday.

In a Senate Finance Committee hearing titled “Examining the Opioid Epidemic: Challenges and Opportunities,” Portman pressed for a bottom-up, all-of-the-above approach to addressing the heroin epidemic that is gripping Ohio.
 
Portman also pushed for his legislation with Senator Pat Toomey to end the plague of prescription drug abuse, the bipartisan Stopping Medication Abuse and Protecting Seniors Act. Portman’s bill will prevent inappropriate access to opioids and improve patient care for at-risk beneficiaries. Last evening, Portman opposed the nomination of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf due to concerns over the FDA’s inadequate response to the heroin epidemic.

 
Excerpts of Portman’s remarks are below.

“It was mentioned that the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act was reported out of the Judiciary Committee hearing by a unanimous vote last week, that doesn’t happen around here. And it did so because it’s bipartisan, we have worked on it for several years, we have brought it in all of the experts to make sure it actually addresses the problem. But also because all of us see this epidemic growing in our states, and we see the human toll.

“This legislation that Senator Toomey has proposed is really important because it says that with regard to Medicare, let’s be sure that we are not allowing people to do the kind of pharmacy shopping and doctor shopping that leads to abuse.”