PRINTER'S NO. 1939

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

No.

344

Session of

2019

INTRODUCED BY CRUZ, DiGIROLAMO, YOUNGBLOOD, HOHENSTEIN, BURGOS,

CALTAGIRONE, SCHLOSSBERG, NEILSON, MURT, MADDEN, STRUZZI,

READSHAW AND GREGORY, JUNE 3, 2019

WHEREAS, Opioids are a classification of drugs derived from

or are a synthetic version of opium and are designed to reduce

pain; and

WHEREAS, Examples of common opioids include prescription

opioids, such as hydrocodone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone and

the synthetic opioid fentanyl and illicit opioids such as

heroin; and

WHEREAS, The introduction of pain as the fifth vital sign in

medicine and the increased availability of prescription opioids

in the late twentieth century led to an increased population

WHEREAS, Americans represent only 4.6% of the world's

population but consume 80% of the world's opioids and 99% of the

global hydrocodone supply; and

WHEREAS, The most recent data available for this Commonwealth

showed almost 70 prescriptions for opioid medications per 100

individuals were written by healthcare practitioners in 2016;

and

WHEREAS, The two most commonly prescribed opioid medications

in this Commonwealth are oxycodone, with more than 2.4 million

prescriptions filled, and hydrocodone, with more than 1.6

WHEREAS, The public health epidemic due to the opioid crisis

knows no boundaries nor distinctions, impacting families of all

ages, races and walks of life; and

WHEREAS, The rate of incidence of Neonatal Abstinence

Syndrome (NAS), a complex condition where a baby is born drug

dependent due to the mother's use of drugs, such as opioids,

during pregnancy, has increased 1,000% in this Commonwealth over

the past two decades; and

WHEREAS, Opioids are the leading cause of accidental deaths

in the United States, surpassing deaths by car accidents; and

this Commonwealth, representing a rate of 43 deaths per 100,000,

far exceeding the national average of 22 per 100,000; and

WHEREAS, As of 2017, individuals 25-54 years of age had the

highest rate of overdose deaths and 71-78% of individuals in

this age group were employed; and

WHEREAS, The societal costs to the nation associated with the

opioid crisis are staggering, amounting to over $78 billion

annually according to the CDC; and

WHEREAS, The financial toll of the crisis due to health care

spending, addiction treatment, criminal justice and lost

Pennsylvania State University found that this Commonwealth was

one of the states hardest hit by opioid-related employment loss,

with about $638.2 million lost in income and sales tax; and

WHEREAS, This Commonwealth is currently in the midst of its

worst public health crisis due to the opioid epidemic; and

WHEREAS, Leaders of this Commonwealth have been working

tirelessly to address the opioid crisis and help the thousands

of individuals, families and communities who have been and

continue to be affected; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Health first provided prescribing

Monitoring All Prescriptions Program (ABC-MAP) Act on October

27, 2014 to address the rising opioid crisis by requiring the

Department of Health to run the Prescription Drug Monitoring

Program (PDMP); and

WHEREAS, The PDMP began collecting Schedule II-V controlled

substance dispensing information in June 2016 and currently

collects around 1.7 million records per month and shares data

with 16 other states and Washington, D.C.; and

WHEREAS, In April 2015, the Physician General signed two

standing order prescriptions for naloxone, one for first

saved; and

WHEREAS, Law enforcement reported to the Department of Drug

and Alcohol Programs that they have saved more than 6,400 lives

with naloxone through December 2017; and

WHEREAS, In June 2017, Attorney General Josh Shapiro

announced that a bipartisan investigation to evaluate whether

pharmaceutical manufacturers have engaged in unlawful practices

in the marketing and sale of opioids was being conducted with 41

other state Attorneys General; and

WHEREAS, The opioid epidemic was declared a public health

renewed five times; and

WHEREAS, The emergency declaration established an Opioid

Command Center to enhance coordination and data collection to

bolster State and local response and to improve tools for

families, first responders and others to save lives and to

remove various barriers to speed up and expand access to

treatment; and

WHEREAS, Despite the great strides this Commonwealth has

taken in addressing the opioid crisis, it is clear that more

needs to be done, as tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians

delivers, gives, prescribes, sells or distributes any controlled

substance or counterfeit controlled substance in violation of

certain sections of The Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and

Cosmetic Act, and another person dies as a result; and

WHEREAS, The equivalent Federal statute is section 841 of

Title 18 of the United States Code; and

WHEREAS, It has been reported that various pharmaceutical

companies, distributors and manufacturers have been investigated

and fined by the DEA for failing to operate mandatory internal

oversight systems in good faith, report suspicious orders to the

Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law and common

law negligence and fraud; and

WHEREAS, Certain pharmaceutical companies have spent and

continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to defraud or

mislead healthcare professionals, patients and the public about

the addictiveness of powerful prescription opioid drugs; and

WHEREAS, These pharmaceutical companies used not only

misleading, but fake scientific charts and data to convince the

medical community to increasingly prescribe opioid drugs; and

WHEREAS, The deceptive marketing practices included the

opioid medications, pharmaceutical companies, distributors and

manufacturers have earned and continue to earn billions of

dollars in profits; and

WHEREAS, Opioid sales peaked at $8 billion in revenue for

drug companies in 2015; and

WHEREAS, The Associated Press and the Center for Public

Integrity published an investigation outlining how certain

pharmaceutical companies and their allies have adopted a 50-

state strategy that includes hundreds of lobbyists and nearly $1

billion spent on lobbying and campaign contributions from 2006

the practice of promoting opioid medications to prescribers

through sales representatives, this process did not occur until

after large profits were made, an opioid crisis was created and

lawsuits were filed; and

WHEREAS, States have historically filed lawsuits against

industries that engaged in illegal business practices, such as

the tobacco industry in the 1990s, in order to protect their

residents; and

WHEREAS, By pursuing legal action against the pharmaceutical

companies, distributors and manufacturers, the Commonwealth is

WHEREAS, In 2007, Purdue Pharma, a large pharmaceutical

company and the maker of the opioid OxyContin pled guilty to

"misbranding," a felony charge that they misled regulators,

doctors and patients about the drug's risk of addiction and its

potential to be abused; and

WHEREAS, More than 1,600 lawsuits filed by counties,

municipalities, hospitals and others have been consolidated in

Federal court into a case known as the National Prescription

Opiate Litigation, and is currently pending against dozens of

pharmaceutical companies, distributors and manufacturers in

WHEREAS, Some of the state Attorneys General filed these

lawsuits on behalf of the residents of their states despite

continuing to collaborate with the Pennsylvania Office of

Attorney General on the important bipartisan investigation to

evaluate whether pharmaceutical manufacturers have engaged in

unlawful practices in the marketing and sale of opioids; and

WHEREAS, On March 26, 2019, Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $270

million in an opioid settlement with the state of Oklahoma in

the first of almost 2,000 lawsuits that are pending against this

and other pharmaceutical companies; and

applauding the work of the Office of Attorney General in

combating the opioid crisis in Pennsylvania through its

bipartisan and multistate investigation, recognize that an

urgent need exists for the Commonwealth to do more; and be it

further

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives urge the Office

of Attorney General as the top law enforcement officer to file

lawsuits against the pharmaceutical companies, distributors and

manufacturers for their practices that caused or contributed to

the opioid crisis in this Commonwealth; and be it further

ones to the opioid epidemic.