WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Block, Report, and Suspend Suspicious Shipments Act (H.R. 3878). Led by Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Congressman David B. McKinley, P.E. (R-WV), this bipartisan legislation will require drug manufacturers, distributors and other Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registrants to exercise due diligence when they receive a suspicious order for opioids and other controlled substances. This includes blocking or declining to fill the suspicious order and providing DEA additional data and background on the indicators on the order in question.
For video of Dingell speaking on the House floor, click here.
“The House took another step to address the ongoing opioid crisis that has ravaged much of our country,” said Dingell. “My home state of Michigan has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have seen a 15 percent year-over-year increase in fatal overdoses across the entire state since March of this year.
“New tools to address pill dumping and other dodgy practices that have perpetuated the opioid crisis are needed more than ever. This bill will crack down on pill dumping and other abusive practices to address the ongoing opioid epidemic, which remains one of the most significant public health challenges facing our country.”
Passage of this legislation is the culmination of years of work following a December 2018 investigation and report by the Energy and Commerce Committee, which looked into pill dumping in West Virginia and the role that drug distributors and manufacturers had in driving the epidemic. The report recommended that “Congress should consider enacting additional suspicious order requirements to clarify registrant responsibilities and to supplement the suspicious order requirements recently codified in the SUPPORT Act.”