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Tag: pain management

  • Experts Develop Post-Surgery Opioid Guidelines To Curb Overprescribing

    Experts Develop Post-Surgery Opioid Guidelines To Curb Overprescribing

    “Our feeling is we shouldn’t just be using draconian, one-size-fits all prescribing,” said one expert from Johns Hopkins. 

    Surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore have developed opioid prescribing guidelines that are specific to 20 common surgeries, in an effort to reduce overprescribing. 

    “This work reflects that surgeons want to be a part of the solution,” Dr. Heidi Overton, a surgery resident at Johns Hopkins who worked on the guidelines, told The Baltimore Sun.

    The guidelines were published this week in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Previously, Johns Hopkins doctors generally prescribed a 30-day supply of opioid painkillers following surgery, a standard that was “dangerously high,” according to lead study author Dr. Martin Makary, a professor of surgery and health policy expert at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. 

    The new guidelines take into account what type of surgery a patient had. The panel that made the recommendations suggested one to 15 opioid pills for 11 of the 20 procedures, 16 to 20 pills for six of the 20 procedures, and none for three of the procedures—a drastic reduction from previous prescribing practices. 

    Patients having orthopedic surgeries needed the most opioid painkillers and those having ear, nose and throat procedures needed the fewest, study authors said. Doctors can adjust their prescription based on specific patients’ needs as well. 

    “Our feeling is we shouldn’t just be using draconian, one-size-fits all prescribing,” said Makary. “Everyone is different. Opioid prescribing should fall within a best practices range and currently we don’t do very well with that. Our hope is that this represents a first step in better understanding how we can treat pain better.”

    Makary noted that one in 16 surgery patients become long-term drug users. He also explained that more than half of patients who did not need opioids to manage pain in the hospital are still sent home with a prescription. Because of that, 70 to 80% of opioids prescribed to patients are never used as prescribed.

    Changing standards around opioid prescriptions is part of addressing the current overdose crisis, he said.  

    “We don’t just need treatment and rehab facilities,” Makary said. “We shouldn’t just be cleaning up the floor, but we should be turning off the spigot of overprescribing that doctors did with good intention, but bad science.”

    Other teaching hospitals have tried to implement opioid prescription guidelines, but the American College of Surgeons has not addressed the issue.

    However, the organization is putting together a brochure “to help surgeons facilitate a dialog with their patients on postoperative pain relief.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New York Moves To Replace Opioids With Medical Marijuana

    New York Moves To Replace Opioids With Medical Marijuana

    Opioid use disorder has been added to the list of qualifying conditions that medical cannabis can be used to treat in the state.

    Officials in New York have changed medical marijuana policy in order to make it easier for patients to access medical cannabis in lieu of opioids, and have added opioid use disorder to the list of qualifying conditions that medical cannabis can be used to treat. 

    The New York Department of Health announced the expansion on July 12. Under the emergency regulations, any condition that could be prescribed an opioid is now a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. 

    “Effective immediately, registered practitioners may certify patients to use medical marijuana as a replacement for opioids, provided that the precise underlying condition for which an opioid would otherwise be prescribed is stated on the patient’s certification,” the state’s press release said. “This allows patients with severe pain that doesn’t meet the definition of chronic pain to use medical marijuana as a replacement for opioids.”

    The expansion also allows people who are being treated for opioid use disorder in a qualified treatment setting to be issued a medical marijuana license to use cannabis as a replacement for opioids. 

    Only 12 other medical conditions are currently listed as qualifying conditions for medical cannabis, so the expansion could have a significant effect on New York’s medical marijuana system. At the time of the announcement, just over 62,000 New Yorkers had a medical marijuana license, according to the health department.  

    Lawmakers hope that by expanding access to medical marijuana, they can reduce the number of opioids prescribed in the state. 

    “Medical marijuana has been shown to be an effective treatment for pain that may also reduce the chance of opioid dependence,” said New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. “Adding opioid replacement as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana offers providers another treatment option, which is a critical step in combatting the deadly opioid epidemic affecting people across the state.”

    Additional changes will make it easier for people to access medical cannabis after they are approved for the program. Lawmakers hope that this will help reduce overdose deaths from opioids. 

    “I have been strongly advocating to remove barriers and allow the use of medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids because it will help patients, reduce the number of highly addictive opioids in circulation, and ultimately, it will save lives,” state Senator George Amedore, co-chair of the Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction said in a June press release.

    “We continue to be faced with an opioid epidemic that is devastating communities throughout our state. It’s important we continue to do everything possible to address this issue from all sides, so I’m glad the Department of Health is taking this measure that will help high risk patients, as well as those that are struggling with, or have overcome, addiction.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Utah Medical Marijuana Vote Creates Rift Among Mormons

    Utah Medical Marijuana Vote Creates Rift Among Mormons

    As the vote nears, Church policy looms large in a state where more than 60% of residents identify as Mormon.

    When Brian Stoll fractured his back in college, he was put on opioid painkillers to manage his discomfort. The pills helped, but Stoll was wary of becoming addicted. He wanted a more natural pain relief method, and he found it in marijuana. 

    “Marijuana is a gift from God,” Stoll told the Los Angeles Times.

    However, when Stoll wanted to get married he had to make a choice: continue using cannabis to treat his pain, or get married in the church where he and his fiancée wanted to wed.

    As Mormons, the couple needed to be in good standing with the church in order to be married in the temple, and because marijuana was an illegal drug, Stoll’s use of it was against church teaching. 

    “This was devastating… I had to choose between my health and my fiancée,” Stoll said. “It seemed asinine that if I lived in another state, I wouldn’t have to make such a difficult decision.”

    Stoll stopped smoking pot and began taking Tramadol—an opioid painkiller—every day. It helps with his pain, but leaves him feeling drowsy. Even his wife Rachael, said that Stoll was better off when he could use cannabis. Because of that, husband and wife are both advocating for the legalization of medical marijuana in Utah. 

    “As a family, we need this to become law,” Rachael said. “We pray for this.”

    Voters in Utah are consider legalizing medical marijuana in November. As the vote nears, church policy looms large in a state where more than 60% of residents identify as Mormon.

    According to polling, two-thirds of voters are in favor of medical marijuana, but the leadership of the Mormon church has taken a less enthusiastic stance.

    In April, the church praised the Utah Medical Association for “cautioning that the proposed Utah marijuana initiative would compromise the health and safety of Utah communities.”

    Utah was among the first states to ban marijuana in the early 1900s, reportedly after Mormon missionaries tried the drug in Mexico. 

    The state’s governor, Gary Herbert, a Republican and a member of the Mormon church, has said that he has reservations about legalizing medical cannabis. 

    “I am concerned about this initiative because of the lack of medical science on the safety, efficacy and proper dosage for compounds found in cannabis,” Herbert said in an email to the LA Times. “We should have clinical studies—just like we do for any other FDA-approved medicine. We need to isolate what helps and heals from what harms.”

    People like Stoll, however, wholeheartedly hope that the measure passes, legalizing marijuana and making its use acceptable in the eyes of the church. 

    “This is something that if I drive east or west—to Colorado or Nevada—is 100% legal and helpful to my situation,” Stoll said. “We’re not talking about recreational. This is simply for medical.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Frustrated Pain Patients Meet With FDA About Opioid Access

    Frustrated Pain Patients Meet With FDA About Opioid Access

    A group of pain patients met at FDA headquarters to share their personal stories in a bid to get the agency to ease opioid restrictions.

    The FDA called a meeting in Washington, D.C. to listen to pain patients’ experiences of lacking access to opioids to manage their symptoms.

    A group traveled to the FDA’s headquarters outside the nation’s capital to ask the agency to ease restrictions that they say has made it harder for them to obtain opioids.

    NBC News reported on the stories of some of those who urged the FDA to consider what it is like to have acute or intractable pain and be unable to find relief.

    Dr. Sharon Hertz, director of FDA’s Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Addiction Products, told NBC of the informal meeting, “We don’t have expectations for what we are asking. If we thought we knew, we wouldn’t be asking.”

    The Patient-Focused Drug Development Meeting included harrowing stories of suffering. Sandra Flores has a condition called adhesive arachnoiditis, which is an inflammation of membranes in the brain, spine and nerve endings. She has repeatedly attempted to obtain the correct drugs for her pain.

    “I am seeing the true face of medicine,” Flores said. “Now they are throwing me in the trash.”

    FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb made an emphatic statement on the plight of pain patients without access to relief. 

    “Tragically, we know that for some patients, loss of quality of life due to crushing pain has resulted in increased thoughts of or actual suicide. This is unacceptable. Reflecting this, even as we seek to curb overprescribing of opioids, we also must make sure that patients with a true medical need for these drugs can access these therapies,” said Gottlieb, according to PatientEngagementHIT.

    The FDA does not regulate physicians’ prescribing habits; states do. As of now, 28 states enforce limits on opioid prescriptions, says data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    Although the FDA, CDC and most major medical institutions agree that limiting access to opioid prescriptions is a necessary step in fighting the opioid epidemic, they do not want intractable pain patients to suffer.

    Under the new regulations, many doctors have simply stopped prescribing out of fear of lawsuits. Flores has been unable to find a doctor that will take her on as a patient. “No doctors will fight. They just don’t want to get into trouble. They have forgotten the people that these drugs were made for.”

    Rose Bigham, speaking on behalf of the Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain, said in the Washington meeting, “To the FDA—we are begging you. Correct the CDC’s egregious mistakes. The CDC recommendations have done irreparable harm to people in pain.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Chronic Pain Patients Feel The Effects Of Arizona Opioid Legislation

    Chronic Pain Patients Feel The Effects Of Arizona Opioid Legislation

    “They told me because of the new law they had to cut me back. It just hurts, I don’t want to walk, I don’t want to… pretty much don’t want to do anything,” said one pain patient.

    New bipartisan legislation curbing the pharmaceutical use of opioids in Arizona has been put into action. In January, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed the Arizona Opioid Epidemic Act, calling it “vital to combat an epidemic felt statewide and across the nation,” according to Reuters.

    However, some chronic pain patients in Arizona are already feeling harmful effects as the law is put into place. NPR reported that although the act was not written around the issues of chronic pain patients, it negatively impacts them, as doctors who are worried about legal trouble curb their patients’ access to the pain-relieving drugs.

    Governor Ducey’s administration had stated that the law would “maintain access for chronic pain sufferers and others who rely on these drugs.”

    This is mostly true: restrictions are written to apply to new patients only. Some were exempted, such as cancer and trauma patients, and patients in end-of-life care.

    However, in practice, some Arizona doctors are pulling back hard on prescribing opioids for all of their patients.

    Dr. Julian Grove, president of the Arizona Pain Society and contributor to the act told NPR that, “A lot of practitioners are reducing opioid medications, not from a clinical perspective, but more from a legal and regulatory perspective for fear of investigation. No practitioner wants to be the highest prescriber.”

    Shannon Hubbard, Arizona resident and chronic pain sufferer (she has a condition called complex regional pain syndrome) had her opioid pain relievers reduced by 10 mg in April. “They told me because of the new Arizona law they had to cut me back,” she told NPR, saying that her pain was now terrible. “It just hurts, I don’t want to walk, I don’t want to… pretty much don’t want to do anything.”

    The legislation created regulations around opioid use, citing that 75% of those addicted to heroin began their use with an opioid prescription. The act includes a limited initial opioid prescription of five days, and for certain extremely addictive painkillers, set a maximum 30-day prescription.

    The law includes $10 million to be spent treating people with opioid addiction who are not insured and ineligible for Medicaid. The “Good Samaritan” provision allows immunity for those reporting an overdose.

    Dr. Cara Christ, head of Arizona’s Department of Health Services and contributor to the state’s opioid response laws, told NPR, “The intent was never to stop prescribers from utilizing opioids. It’s really meant to prevent a future generation from developing opioid use disorder, while not impacting current chronic pain patients.”

    Still, Shannon Hubbard is living with the effects of the law, and not the intentions.

    “What they are doing is not working,” she told NPR. “They are having no effect on the guy who is on the street shooting heroin and is really in danger of overdosing. Instead they are hurting people that are actually helped by the drugs.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "No Evidence" That Medical Marijuana Works For Chronic Pain, Study Finds

    "No Evidence" That Medical Marijuana Works For Chronic Pain, Study Finds

    The study also found “no evidence” that marijuana use reduced prescription opioid use. 

    For those experiencing non-cancer chronic pain, medical marijuana may not be as effective as initially thought, according to a new study.

    According to Medical Xpress, researchers at UNSW Sydney, who led one of the longest community studies of its kind, discovered no obvious role when it comes to cannabis for the treatment of non-cancer chronic pain.

    The Pain and Opioids In Treatment (POINT) study, which took place over four years, discovered that participants who used marijuana for chronic pain reported they were “experiencing greater pain and anxiety, were coping less well with their pain, and reported that pain was interfering more in their life,” when compared to those not using medical marijuana. 

    “At four-year follow-up, compared with people with no cannabis use, we found that participants who used cannabis had a greater pain severity score, for less frequent cannabis use, greater pain interference score, lower pain self-efficacy scores and greater generalized anxiety disorder severity scores,” authors wrote. “We found no evidence of a temporal relationship between cannabis use and pain severity or pain interference, and no evidence that cannabis use reduced prescribed opioid use or increased rates of opioid discontinuation.”

    Researchers did not find any clear evidence that medical marijuana reduced severity of pain or had participants decrease opioid use or dosage. When it comes to medical marijuana, chronic non-cancer pain is the most common reason for use. 

    The length of this study sets it apart from others, Medical Xpress points out. The POINT study recruited participants through community pharmacies, then completed an overall assessment of their level of pain, physical and mental health, and medication and marijuana use each year. 

    Of the 1,514 participants, about 80% completed all the assessments, Medical Xpress states. The median number of years of chronic pain was about 10 and the number of years having taken opioids for the pain was about four. Rates of physical and mental health issues among participants were high, Medical Xpress says.

    The results of the study were published in Lancet Public Health and imply there may not be as many benefits to medical marijuana as previously thought.

    “Chronic non-cancer pain is a complex problem,” said lead author Dr. Gabrielle Campbell. “For most people, there is unlikely to be a single effective treatment… In our study of people living with chronic non-cancer pain who were prescribed pharmaceutical opioids, despite reporting perceived benefits from cannabis use, we found no strong evidence that cannabis use reduced participants’ pain or opioid use over time.”

    This study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and led by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW Sydney.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Healthcare Pros Talk Unintended Consequences Of Addressing Opioid Crisis

    Healthcare Pros Talk Unintended Consequences Of Addressing Opioid Crisis

    “Doctors just say, ‘That’s it, I’m done. I’m not going to lose my license over you and good luck,’ and that’s unconscionable,” said one health expert.

    The opioid epidemic has drawn more political and media attention than any other public health crisis in recent memory, but healthcare professionals say that the focus on preventing opioid-related deaths is having unintended consequences for patients dealing with other conditions including cancer, chronic pain and other forms of substance use disorder. 

    One of the biggest concerns is that patients are being taken off their opioids too quickly, which can increase physical symptoms of withdrawal and leave patients feeling overwhelmed by the idea of quitting. 

    “Some people will be tapered too quickly or in a way that is intolerable to them,” Elinore McCance-Katz, the Health and Human Services assistant secretary for mental health and substance use, told Politico. 

    Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and Yale University School of Medicine lecturer, said that some doctors are less understanding of slowly tapering patients because they’re concerned about their own liability. 

    “I’ve seen patients where doctors just say ‘That’s it, I’m done. I’m not going to lose my license over you and good luck,’ and that’s unconscionable,” she said.

    Although policies have shifted to focus on non-opioid pain relief, these options are still less likely to be covered by insurance, leaving patients with chronic pain with few options.

    The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department have begun paying for alternative care, but “beyond that it’s pretty much just been lip service and it’s a little challenging how to craft legislation that affects what private payers are able to offer in this arena,” said Bob Twillman, executive director of the Academy of Integrative Pain Management. 

    “It’s one thing for an insurer to cover [an opioid alternative]. It’s another thing to cover it at a co-pay that the patient can afford,” said Cindy Reilly, who recently left the Pew Charitable Trust, where she focused on issues around opioid use and access to effective pain management. “We need to stop making opioids the easy decision—in terms of writing prescriptions and patient access. Higher co-pays will stand in the way.”

    Sean Morrison, chairman of the geriatrics and palliative medicine department at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said that he is increasingly seeing hospice patients unable to get the opioid drugs needed to make their end of life more bearable. 

    “Almost every patient I have prescribed for recently has either a) run into pharmacies that no longer carry common opioids; b) cannot receive a full supply; and c) worst of all had their mail order pharmacy refuse to fill or have had arbitrary and non-science based dose or pill limits imposed,” he said. 

    Joe Rotella, the chief medical officer for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, agreed. 

    “Even with exemptions for hospice care, prescription limits are still having an impact,” he said. “Patients have a tougher time getting these medications and it’s a lot more hassle for providers.”

    Cancer patients are also being affected as hospitals experience a shortage of IV fentanyl and morphine. 

    Finally, the focus on funding interventions for people abusing opioids has deflected money from other drug-intervention programs. This is especially problematic in areas like the Southwest, where overdose deaths from methamphetamine are rising sharply. 

    “We treat drug epidemics like ‘whack a mole,’” said West Virginia Public Health Commissioner Rahul Gupta. “We get one under control, another pops up.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Can IV Tylenol Help Curb The Opioid Crisis?

    Can IV Tylenol Help Curb The Opioid Crisis?

    Health experts are debating the efficacy of IV acetaminophen as a non-opioid pain management tool.

    An approach to cutting back on opioid use isn’t proving as affordable or as helpful as thought, according to the Washington Post.  

    In an effort to cut down on opioid use, some hospitals are turning to intravenous forms of medications like Tylenol. Boston Medical Center was one such entity, adding IV Tylenol as a method of pain management.

    However, David Twitchell, Boston Medical Center’s chief pharmacy officer, says the price quickly became concerning. 

    According to the Post, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals increased the price of IV Tylenol and the medical center was projected to spend $750,000 on acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in Tylenol, in 2015.

    The Post notes that a normal tablet dose of acetaminophen costs only cents, but Ofirmev, the IV version, is $40 per 1,000 milligrams.

    “It was going to cost us, without the intervention that happened, more than any other drug on our formulary. Think of the most expensive cancer drug,” Twitchell told the Post. “To me, that didn’t seem justified.”

    Though some medical centers are attempting to turn away from opioids and instead utilizing options such as IV Tylenol, a recent study found that this approach may not be any more effective than taking the medication in tablet form. Some studies, on the other hand, claim there is a benefit to the IV medication. 

    Another study published in the July issue of Anesthesiology examined seven years of data for bowel surgeries across 602 hospitals and determined that when it came to decreasing opioid use, IV acetaminophen seemed no more effective than taking a tablet form of the same medication. 

    “It just seems very often, physicians have magical thinking about a new preparation of an old drug,” Andrew Leibowitz, system chair of the department of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and co-author of the study, told the Post. “Doctors do seem, in general when a patient is in the hospital, to favor IV medications as a knee-jerk reflex, even when equally effective oral medications are available.”

    According to Mallinckrodt, the study was “significantly flawed” and argued that half the patients in the study had not even received a full dose of the medication.

    IV Tylenol isn’t the only generic painkiller to be offered in IV form, the Post states. The Post also says that more types of IV painkillers are expected in the future. 

    Erin Krebs, a staff physician at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, led a study published in JAMA that determined that opioids were no more effective than non-opioids when it came to managing chronic back pain or hip and knee pain.

    She tells the Post that while it’s good that physicians are reexamining prescribing opioids, they should be careful not to buy into other new medications too early.

    “I think part of the reason we got into such a mess with opioids was really a lack of training and understanding of pain management,” Krebs told the Post. “It’s a symptom of how little research we’ve done on the appropriate management of these really common conditions. These are some of the most common human ailments, and they have not received enough research attention, research funding or education.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Kratom Supporters Converge on Washington to Fight Potential Ban

    Kratom Supporters Converge on Washington to Fight Potential Ban

    Kratom advocates met at the U.S. Capitol in early June to begin a week of lobbying in favor of the substance.

    With a federal ban on kratom gaining traction in Washington, D.C, advocates of the plant’s pain management and potential opioid withdrawal properties traveled to the nation’s capital to lobby support for the Southeast Asian plant.

    Participants hoped to correct legislators’ misconceptions about the plant, which has been labeled as an equivalent to prescription opioids with no medical benefit by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

    But as the Huffington Post noted, supporters found that their efforts generated a mixed response from the House and Senate, where legislative aides reportedly said that if the FDA followed through with the ban, it would most likely receive backing from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

    Surveys have suggested that between three and five million Americans use kratom, which is consumed as a supplement made from the dried or powdered leaves of the kratom tree.

    Users claim that kratom can serve as a stimulant or sedative, and it has been touted as an alternative to prescription opioids for pain management, and in some cases, as a potential tool for withdrawal from opioids. It is currently unregulated in America, though some states have enacted a ban on the substance within their own borders.

    Kratom’s interaction with opioid receptors in the body has placed it in the crosshairs of the FDA, which has claimed that it can impact the user in the same manner as opioids, and has the same potential for abuse and dependency.

    The agency’s negative press eventually spurred the DEA’s decision to temporarily add kratom to its list of Schedule I drugs in 2016, though public outcry from users who relied on the substance for their quality of life forced it to rescind its order that same year.

    The FDA has since renewed its efforts to take kratom off the market, this time with computer analysis that suggested the most prevalent compounds in the substance share “structural similarities” to opioids. It also officially recommended that the DEA move forward with its rescheduling, a decision which, according to sources within the agency, may happen as early as summer 2018.

    In hopes of heading off such measures, kratom advocates met at the U.S. Capitol on June 5 to begin a week of lobbying in favor of the substance. Proponents testified to the positive impact of kratom use on their chronic pain, which they claimed to have treated unsuccessfully with prescription opioids.

    As the HuffPost article noted, one individual spoke about her anxiety that had driven her to consider suicide, and how she had found relief through kratom use.

    But attendees also reported that meetings with legislative aides at the House and Senate could not generate a concrete statement of support. Most appeared to hear and support the advocates’ aims, but could not assure the visitors that they would work on their behalf; others stated that if the FDA wanted to reassign kratom, there would be little they could do to stave off or reverse that decision.

    “They were pretty much letting us know that this isn’t looking too great,” said Melanie Victor, a volunteer from Tennessee. “This is probably going to be a pretty big fight.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • House Passes 25 Bills To Aid Fight Against Opioid Crisis

    House Passes 25 Bills To Aid Fight Against Opioid Crisis

    The bills cover a variety of issues ranging from improving sober living homes to disposal of unused medication.

    In an effort to lend legislative support to the fight against the national opioid epidemic, the House of Representatives passed 25 bills that would provide crucial support to both government and public organizations to combat the crisis on a number of fronts.

    The bills, authored by both Democratic and Republican representatives, include measures to expand access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone, develop new forms of pain medication that are non-dependency-forming, and allow medical professionals to view a patient’s medical history for previous substance abuse.

    Greg Walden (R-OR), the Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman, and Michael C. Burger (R-TX), Health Subcommittee Chairman, said in a joint statement that the bills are “real solutions that will change how we respond to this crisis.”

    Among the bills passed are:

    • H.R. 449, the Synthetic Drug Awareness Act of 2018, which will require U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams to submit a “comprehensive report to Congress on the public health effects of the rise of synthetic drug use among youth aged 12 to 18,” authored by Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Chris Collins (D-NY)
    • H.R. 4684, the Ensuring Access to Quality Sober Living Act of 2018, which will authorize the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to “develop, publish, and disseminate best practices for operating recovery housing that promotes a safe environment for sustained recovery,” authored by Reps. Judy Chu (D-CA), Mimi Walters (R-CA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Raul Ruiz (D-CA)
    • H.R. 5009, Jessie’s Law, which will require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop the best way to present information about substance use disorder in a consenting patient’s history for medical professionals to make informed decisions about treatment, authored by Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Debbie Dingell (D-MD)
    • H.R. 5012, the Safe Disposal of Unused Medication Act, which will allow hospice employees to remove and dispose of unused controlled substances after the death of a patient, authored by Reps. Walberg and Dingell
    • H.R. 5327, the Comprehensive Opioid Recovery Centers Act of 2018, which will establish such centers to “dramatically improve the opportunities for individuals to establish and maintain long-term recovery through the use of FDA-approved medications and evidence-based treatment, authored by Health Subcommittee Vice Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Ranking Member Gene Green (R-TX)
    • And H.R. 4275, the Empowering Pharmacists in the Fight Against Opioid Abuse Act, which will give pharmacists more information and ability to decline prescriptions for controlled substances which they suspect to be fraudulent or for abuse, authored by Reps. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Buddy Carter (R-GA).

    Reps. Walden and Burgess noted in their statement that the bills will “make our states and local communities better equipped in the nationwide efforts to stem this tide” of opioid dependency and overdose.

    The House will continue to review related bills on January 14, including H.R. 6069, which will require the Comptroller General to conduct a study on how virtual currencies are used to facilitate goods or services linked to drug or sex trafficking.

    View the original article at thefix.com