The Senate adopts a package of bipartite opioids



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The package consists of provisions from five Senate committees and more than 70 legislators, and comes after the House passed a similar bill in June.

This bill was sponsored by Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, chair of the Senate Health Committee, and includes several initiatives to combat the opioid crisis.

In a statement, Alexander said Monday that he "was already working to combine Senate and House Bills into an even stronger law to tackle the country's worst public health crisis, and that it's not the same." it is urgent to send the bill to the president. " quickly."

The package contains provisions that would give the US Food and Drug Administration the power to require specific packaging for opioids, as well as a research effort on non-addictive painkillers, according to a previous Alexander statement.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2016, more than 63,600 people died of an overdose in the United States and 42,249 of these deaths involved an opioid.

The legislation also includes the "STOP law", which would try to help stem the flood of illegal drugs entering the United States.

Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, introduced the STOP Act based on the findings of a one-and-a-half year investigation into the issue of the Senate's Standing Senate Subcommittee on Investigation, he said. declared in June.
"The Senate Standing Senate Subcommittee, which I chair, conducted an 18-month investigation that revealed how these drugs can be found on Google and delivered directly to buyers' doors.", Portman writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer , explaining that the postal service is not required to collect specific data on certain international packets.

Portman went on to argue that although the postal service has increased data collection for some international packages, it is still "inadequate".

"It will be necessary for the postal service to obtain this data for all parcels entering the United States.Filling the gap in our postal control and maintaining the postal service to the same standards as private carriers, we will drugs from our communities", did he declare.

Trump urged senators to adopt the STOP Act in a tweet last month, writing: "It is outrageous that toxic synthetic heroin Fentanyl enters the US postal system from China.We can STOP ACT – and stop firmly this poison to kill our children and destroy our country, no more delay! "

In addition to the STOP law, a statement from Alexander notes that the March omnibus bill gave $ 4.7 billion to the opioid crisis, including $ 1 billion for state subsidies.

Alexander said in a statement that the legislation represents the work of "more than 70 senators, five committees and countless employees who have worked together to help end the epidemic of opioids that ravage virtually all American communities. "

"The House has already adopted its version of the law, and there is a bipartisan urgency to work with our colleagues in the House to bring the legislation to the office of the President," the statement said.

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