{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://meadows.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/meadows-crafts-potential-opioid-legislation", "Meadows crafts potential opioid legislation", "2017-12-11", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "NC", "Mark Meadows", "M001187", "meadows.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "The stakes in the opioid crisis are sky-high high and rising, its tentacles leaving few areas untouched.\nAccording to a recent story on\u00a0Bloomberg.com\u00a0citing a Columbia University study, over half of all people who died from an overdose between\u00a02001 to\u00a02007 were chronic pain sufferers who filled an opioid prescription with some having doctor visits shortly before their death. In addition, the story said that\u00a0in the second quarter of 2017, a staggering one out of every six emergency room visits in the U.S. was opioid-related.\nAs the highly addictive drugs continue to drive premature deaths from both acute and chronic misuse, local and state officials have already begun taking serious action. Although building up enough steam to move the hulking federal government to act takes a bit more oomph, North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows, along with Congressman Jim Renacci of Ohio \u2014 the state hardest hit by the opioid crisis \u2014 has introduced legislation to limit prescribers\u2019 ability to give people more opioid-based pain killers than needed.\nMeadows and Renacci outlined the legislation, called the Opioid Abuse Deterrence, Research, and Recovery Act, in an op-ed which appeared in the Mountaineer. If passed, first-time opioid prescriptions would be limited to seven days, with the following exceptions: traumatic injury, chronic conditions, cancer care, end of life care, palliative care, based on a physician\u2019s recommendation.\nThe bill\nIn an interview with The Mountaineer, Meadows spoke at length about the legislation.\n\u201cIt tries to direct some of the prescribing issues that we have with opioids and the abuse that comes with overprescribing without hamstringing the doctor-patient relationship,\u201d he said.\nMeadows said that, after speaking with numerous people in his district and Washington, D.C., it was clear that prescriptions longer than seven days carry a far greater risk for abuse. Beyond the fact that more pills mean more opportunities to become addicted, it can also lead to improper self-medication, even when the user feels it is appropriate.\n\u201cThere\u2019s also the potential for saying, \u2018I had a surgery that this was appropriate for,\u2019\u201d he said, noting that there may be excess pills left in the medicine cabinet. \u201cBut now maybe I\u2019ve fallen and I\u2019ll take a couple of those pills that were left in my medicine cabinet to alleviate the pain when IB or something else might do the trick.\u201d\nThere are also other aspects to the bill. Meadows said that there will be an investigation into opioid alternatives that can quell pain without the high risk for addiction. And along with requiring the Government Accountability Office to review policies that worsened the opioid epidemic, the bill also directs the FDA to determine measures to prevent people from obtaining the prescription drugs from neighboring states, which is a major issue in Western North Carolina, where anyone can travel to Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, or Alabama within a few hours.\n\u201cWe look to the FDA to provide some other clear standards on prescribing but also on medical records so we don\u2019t have individuals doctor shopping across state lines,\u201d he said, adding that he also wants to see greater recording and analysis of data.\nInput \u2014 and support \u2014 from all sides\nAlthough many pharmaceutical companies are known for pouring money into lobbying efforts, Meadows said they never worked their agenda into this legislation.\n\u201cI think some of them wanted to weigh in, but we went with what I would say the nontraditional lobbyists,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t say whether they have a lobbying firm, but the North Carolina Society of Medicine was one ... But big pharma and some of the other lobbyists in terms of pharmacies played a very diminished role if any at all.\u201d\nHowever, that doesn\u2019t mean those pharmaceutical lobbies don\u2019t have their fingers in a few pies. Meadows said he thinks part of the reason he didn\u2019t face much opposition on his bill is because those groups are gearing up for a bigger fight when it comes to fair pricing of prescription medications.\nAlthough the pharmaceutical lobby may have been preoccupied, Meadows said he still took some flak from other groups.\n\u201cOriginally, this was a lot more defined,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we started getting pushback from some of our medical societies that say you may actually be hurting the ability or proper pain management versus those that are looking at it in a less than critical manner in their prescription methods.\u201d\nMeadows also met with numerous prescribers and law enforcement department heads \u2014 including Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher and Waynesville Police Chief Bill Hollingsed \u2014before crafting his legislation.\n\u201cThis particular bill was actually the result of meeting with law enforcement officers and medical personnel in the district, and that\u2019s where it started,\u201d Meadows said. \u201cIt was probably six months in the working. We worked with the North Carolina medical society, we worked with Duke University, we worked with The Association of Orthopedic Surgeons, American Enterprise Institute, and Law enforcement officers.\u201d\nIn addition, Meadows has tried to keep President Trump \u2014 who has spoken about this issue at length, and even formed an opioid taskforce that includes North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper \u2014 in the loop.\n\u201cThey\u2019re aware that we\u2019re working on this legislation and this legislation came out about the same time Kellyanne Conway was named as the drug czar,\u201d he said. \u201cKellyanne Conway and I have a very good working relationship and we\u2019re forwarding the bill to her so they can look at either modifications or whether they want to move that forward.\u201d\nMeadows said the bill has received solid bipartisan support thus far, and some have reached across the aisle to address the issue.\n\u201cI talked to (Democratic Maryland Congressman) Elijah Cummings briefly yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had just had an opioid hearing in his district this week. They\u2019re passing that along to some of my Democrat colleagues to look at that.\u201d\nJust the beginning\nSome elements of this bill mirror the STOP act, which was sponsored in North Carolina Senate by Jim Davis, who represents Haywood County. Although the STOP Act goes much farther than Meadows\u2019 proposed legislation, state lawmakers ran into an issue when they couldn\u2019t apply the law to federal prescribers, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, Meadows\u2019 legislation will apply to these organizations.\n\u201cThis sets a federal standard,\u201d Meadows said.\nThe legislation put forth by Meadows and Renacci is a sure step in the right direction, but it\u2019s one that Meadows admitted is a bit of a baby step. In fact, some in congress have already started floating more ideas.\n\u201cAnother idea that would cost additional money would be reimbursement for Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance gets reimbursed for pain killers that may not have the same addictive nature,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, Medicare and Medicaid will preclude some of thsoe either based on cost or based on a patients age. We\u2019re working with the FDA on that.\u201d\nAlthough Meadows is notorious for being a fiscal conservative not fond of shelling out taxpayer dollars for government programs, he admitted that, when it comes to combatting the opioid crisis, there should be an allocation of some serious funds.\n\u201cI\u2019ve been one that\u2019s been a proponent of that,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore I was in congress, I put some of my own personal money into some ventures. One was education program for kids from elementary to middle school. In addition, I\u2019ve put money forward for scholarships for people willing to work with us on drug prevention aspects. It\u2019s not widely reported, but I had done that prior to being a member of congress, and I\u2019d seen value in not only the educational side of that but also from the treatment point of view. So yes, additional dollars for that would be appropriate.\u201d\nHe added that there are opportunities to wisely use any additional funding.\n\u201cAs we introduce this bill, several other ideas came up,\u201d he said. \u201cI was having a conversation yesterday with a senator where we were talking about NIH funding. They believed that the federal government would match private industry and have each pharma company put up several hundred million dollars, and have a matching fund through the NIH funding.\u201d\nWhile this bill may be small in terms of scope, Meadows said it will further the greater conversation and pave the way for more effective legislation.\n\u201cThe real message needs to be this: if this is all we do, we have not done enough,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a start on what we do, then we can applaud and realize we\u2019re all moving in the right direction.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://meadows.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/meadows-crafts-potential-opioid-legislation"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.202507108449936, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}