Pallone Applauds Committee Passage of Bill to Combat Prescription Drug Abuse
WASHINGTON, DC – With prescription drug abuse on the rise, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today applauded his Committee’s passage of the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) Act. The program provides grant funding to states for prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). PDMPs aid in combatting the growing prescription drug abuse epidemic by helping prescribers, pharmacists, and law enforcement officials track the misuse of prescription drugs. Pallone is a coauthor of the legislation and has long-led Democratic efforts for its reauthorization.
“Prescription drug abuse has escalated at an alarming rate over the past decade with corresponding increases in both overdose deaths and addiction,” said Congressman Pallone. “By helping to ensure prescription drugs are used only for intended purposes with legitimate prescriptions, NASPER will combat this devastating and growing epidemic, which accounts for over 20,000 deaths in the United States each year. Now that this bipartisan bill has been approved by the Committee, I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass it through the House.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has classified prescription drug abuse as an epidemic. 52 million people over the age of 12 in the U.S. have used prescription drugs non-medically in their lifetime, and approximately 6.5 million individuals in the U.S. were prescription drug users for nonmedical purposes in 2013. The effects are being felt throughout the country, and while New Jersey has the 11th lowest rate of prescription drug abuse, it is no exception. According to the most recent statistics, 3.9 percent of the state’s population over the age of 12 uses prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes. Furthermore, the number of drug overdone deaths – a majority of which are from prescription drugs – in New Jersey increased by 51 percent since 1999.
Originally created in 2005, the NASPER law, cosponsored by Pallone, is intended to ensure that prescription drugs are used only for intended purposes with legitimate prescriptions. The reauthorization of NASPER would allocate $15 million that will be used, in part, to improve interstate communication to identify the misuse of drugs, including “problem doctors” who give out improper prescriptions. The funding would be distributed through grants to states by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) within the Department of Health and Human Services.