Our society must begin to treat the disease of addiction that’s plaguing our country as a serious public health issue that requires prevention efforts, treatment options, and public safety tools like the Naloxone antidote.
Treat addiction as a serious public health issue with prevention, treatment, and naloxone.
Occurrences
Evidence
Congress.gov records that S.524 became Public Law No. 114-198 on July 22, 2016. Its summary includes prevention and education, programs to prevent, treat, or respond to opioid abuse, first-responder overdose-reversal drugs, naloxone-related grants, and treatment connections.
The enacted law authorizes federal grants addressing the prescription opioid and heroin crisis. Its table of contents includes Prevention and Education, Improving access to overdose treatment, Opioid overdose reversal medication access and education grant programs, Treatment and Recovery, and Medication-assisted treatment for recovery from addiction.
Congress.gov records that H.R.6 became Public Law No. 115-271 on October 24, 2018. The official title is to provide for opioid use disorder prevention, recovery, and treatment. The House passed it 396-14 and the Senate later agreed 98-1.
The enacted law states it provides for opioid use disorder prevention, recovery, and treatment. Its provisions include Medicaid substance use disorder treatment via telehealth, Medicaid health homes for substance-use-disorder enrollees, Medicare coverage of opioid treatment programs, public health provisions, first responder training, youth prevention and recovery, and comprehensive opioid recovery centers.
FDA approved Narcan 4 mg naloxone nasal spray for over-the-counter, nonprescription use, the first naloxone product approved without a prescription. FDA said the action helps improve access to naloxone, increase locations where it is available, and reduce opioid overdose deaths.
Congress.gov lists Rep. Donald Norcross as sponsor of H.R.1359, introduced March 3, 2023. The bill status is Introduced, with latest House action referral to the Subcommittee on Health on March 10, 2023, and the policy area Health.
The introduced bill text says Rep. Norcross introduced H.R.1359 and that the bill would expand take-home prescribing of methadone through pharmacies. It would waive certain Controlled Substances Act requirements for methadone medication for opioid use disorder and allow registered providers to prescribe methadone for pharmacy dispensing to individuals for unsupervised use.
Assessments
The promised federal public-health approach to addiction was substantially enacted during Norcross's House service through the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016, which covered prevention, treatment/recovery, medication-assisted treatment, first-responder overdose reversal, and naloxone-related grant programs. Later federal actions, including the SUPPORT Act and OTC Narcan approval, further reinforced delivery, while Norcross also personally advanced a treatment-access bill in 2023. Because the core prevention, treatment, and naloxone elements became federal law while he was in office, this counts as delivered in the same term.