Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, deaths from drug overdoses have risen in nearly every county across the United States, with 47,055 Americans being lost each year due to overdose, the equivalent of about 115 people every day. Pharmacists are the last line of defense in the fight against prescription drug abuse. Under current law, pharmacists are required to exercise sound professional judgment when making a determination about the legitimacy of a controlled substance prescription. While the proper prescribing of controlled substances is a responsibility of the prescribing practitioner, pharmacists have a corresponding responsibility to ensure that controlled substances are only dispensed pursuant to a valid prescription issued for a legitimate medical purpose by a practitioner acting in the usual course of his professional practice. Even though pharmacists are not law enforcement officers, they play an important role in preventing the use of fraudulent prescriptions at the pharmacy counter. The Empowering Pharmacists in the Fight Against Opioid Abuse Act would require the Department of Health and Human Services, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other Federal agencies responsible for combating the opioid epidemic to produce and disseminate materials to pharmacists that provide guidance on when and how to refuse to fill a prescription that the pharmacist believes to be fraudulent.…”