Bipartisanship is no indication of legislative quality, as indicated by the opioid bill introduced by Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D) and Cory Gardner (R). The “John S. McCain Opioid Addiction and Prevention Act” limits opioid prescription for acute pain to 7 days. It’s an awful idea that will do nothing to solve opioid overdoses, but will harm many patients.
As many pointed out when Gillibrand announced the bill on Twitter, “acute pain” covers a variety of maladies, many requiring much more than a week’s worth of medication, and not just events similar to a “wisdom tooth extraction” she cited. Forcing patients already suffering from pain to return to a doctor every week for medication is an unnecessary hardship.
There was a strong and immediate negative reaction to the bill from health professionals and patients already suffering from other misguided government policies. In response to the backlash, Gillibrand says she is open ” open to improving the bill.” Unfortunately, she also says ” the intent was to address what experts believe is one of the root causes of the opioid epidemic: the over-prescription of opioids for acute pain.”
In other words, she doesn’t get it. There may be some situations where opioids are overprescribed, but it is a myth that overprescription is a root cause of the “opioid crisis.” As I wrote recently:
We often hear the problem called an “opioid crisis,” but on closer inspection this moniker appears misleading. Opioids are a potent pain medication that many need and use responsibly. There’s little risk of overdose from the proper medical use of prescription opioids. Most opioid overdoses instead occur from use of powerful synthetics like fentanyl. Even in the roughly 30 percent of fatal overdose cases involving prescription opioids, fentanyl or heroin are also often involved.
Pretty much all of the increase in opioid deaths in recent years are due to the spike in fentanyl related deaths, which is why “opioid-related deaths keep rising as pain pill prescriptions fall.” Our Taxpayers Against Illicit Opioids project exists to further draw attention to this unfortunate misconception.
Moreover, the medical community is better situated than politicians to determine where prescriptions are out of whack and to devise solutions, if necessary. What Gillibrand and Gardner are proposing is just another round in the war on pain pills that would exacerbate the fear already compelling doctors to drastically cut back on prescriptions for chronic pain sufferers.
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Image credit: U.S. Air Force photo illustration/Tech. Sgt. Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner | Public Domain.
