Gardner Sponsors Bill That Creates Opioid Database, Targets Rogue Pharmacies
By Shaun Boyd
HUERFANO COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- Only 6,400 people live in Huerfano County but more than 13,000 opioid prescriptions were dispensed in the county in 2016. Huerfano had the highest death rate from opioids in the state that year.
"It's everywhere. It feels like it is everywhere," says Amanda Gordon, who runs one of the only substance abuse treatment facilities in the county, "As somebody who lives in the community, it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart."
Now, new legislation in Congress aims to address those dispensing large quantities of opioids in communities like Huerfano. Colorado U.S. Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican, is the sponsor of the bill that goes after rogue pharmacies, hospitals and assisted living facilities.
"To see this amount of drug coming into a community - not from an illegal vendor but from a perfectly legal system - it didn't make sense. So we started asking questions, 'Why aren't there safeguards?'" said Gardner.
Gardner says the facilities often place orders with multiple suppliers, making it impossible to track how many pills any one facility is getting. His bill - that has bi-partisan sponsors in both chambers - would create an automated database that consolidates all of a facility's orders, so DEA agents can flag large orders before shipments go out. The bill would track in real time how many pills any one place is ordering.
"Does all of the sudden one pharmacy pop really high when it's never done that before and, if that's the case, should somebody call and say, 'Is this right? Is anything going on?' so we can find out if there's bad actors before the communities are flooded with controlled substances."
Gardner says distributors are required to flag suspicious orders already, but they don't coordinate and don't always comply. A former DEA agent told 60 Minutes that the largest distributor - McKesson Corporation - pumped at least 1.3 million opioid pills a month into the San Luis Valley, a community of only 46,000 people.
"When I learned hospitals were trying to find ways that they can get nasal applications of Narcan because little children can't inject their parents with the injection form of Narcan, this has got to stop."
Under the bill, the DEA would notify a distributor if a facility is placing multiple large orders. They would be required to hold the shipment until they know what's going on. Distributors that continue to ship, despite the DEA flagging the order, would face hefty fines.
Shaun Boyd is CBS4's political specialist. She's a veteran reporter with more than 25 years of experience. Follow her on Twitter @cbs4shaun.