releases: https://meadows.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/meadows-crafts-potential-opioid-legislation
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | legacy | The stakes in the opioid crisis are sky-high high and rising, its tentacles leaving few areas untouched. According to a recent story on Bloomberg.com citing a Columbia University study, over half of all people who died from an overdose between 2001 to 2007 were chronic pain sufferers who filled an opioid prescription with some having doctor visits shortly before their death. In addition, the story said that in the second quarter of 2017, a staggering one out of every six emergency room visits in the U.S. was opioid-related. As 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 — the state hardest hit by the opioid crisis — has introduced legislation to limit prescribers’ ability to give people more opioid-based pain killers than needed. Meadows 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’s recommendation. The bill In an interview with The Mountaineer, Meadows spoke at length about the legislation. “It 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,” he said. Meadows 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. “There’s also the potential for saying, ‘I had a surgery that this was appropriate for,’” he said, noting that there may be excess pills left in the medicine cabinet. “But now maybe I’ve fallen and I’ll 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.” There 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. “We look to the FDA to provide some other clear standards on prescribing but also on medical records so we don’t have individuals doctor shopping across state lines,” he said, adding that he also wants to see greater recording and analysis of data. Input — and support — from all sides Although many pharmaceutical companies are known for pouring money into lobbying efforts, Meadows said they never worked their agenda into this legislation. “I think some of them wanted to weigh in, but we went with what I would say the nontraditional lobbyists,” he said. “I can’t 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.” However, that doesn’t mean those pharmaceutical lobbies don’t have their fingers in a few pies. Meadows said he thinks part of the reason he didn’t 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. Although the pharmaceutical lobby may have been preoccupied, Meadows said he still took some flak from other groups. “Originally, this was a lot more defined,” he said. “But 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.” Meadows also met with numerous prescribers and law enforcement department heads — including Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher and Waynesville Police Chief Bill Hollingsed —before crafting his legislation. “This particular bill was actually the result of meeting with law enforcement officers and medical personnel in the district, and that’s where it started,” Meadows said. “It 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.” In addition, Meadows has tried to keep President Trump — who has spoken about this issue at length, and even formed an opioid taskforce that includes North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper — in the loop. “They’re aware that we’re working on this legislation and this legislation came out about the same time Kellyanne Conway was named as the drug czar,” he said. “Kellyanne Conway and I have a very good working relationship and we’re forwarding the bill to her so they can look at either modifications or whether they want to move that forward.” Meadows said the bill has received solid bipartisan support thus far, and some have reached across the aisle to address the issue. “I talked to (Democratic Maryland Congressman) Elijah Cummings briefly yesterday,” he said. “We had just had an opioid hearing in his district this week. They’re passing that along to some of my Democrat colleagues to look at that.” Just the beginning Some 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’ proposed legislation, state lawmakers ran into an issue when they couldn’t apply the law to federal prescribers, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, Meadows’ legislation will apply to these organizations. “This sets a federal standard,” Meadows said. The legislation put forth by Meadows and Renacci is a sure step in the right direction, but it’s one that Meadows admitted is a bit of a baby step. In fact, some in congress have already started floating more ideas. “Another 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,” he said. “Right now, Medicare and Medicaid will preclude some of thsoe either based on cost or based on a patients age. We’re working with the FDA on that.” Although 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. “I’ve been one that’s been a proponent of that,” he said. “Before 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’ve put money forward for scholarships for people willing to work with us on drug prevention aspects. It’s not widely reported, but I had done that prior to being a member of congress, and I’d 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.” He added that there are opportunities to wisely use any additional funding. “As we introduce this bill, several other ideas came up,” he said. “I 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.” While 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. “The real message needs to be this: if this is all we do, we have not done enough,” he said. “This is a start on what we do, then we can applaud and realize we’re all moving in the right direction.” | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |