Griffith Amendment Passes Health Subcommittee in Bill to Help Prevent Opioid Overdose Deaths

The Health Subcommittee on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 voted on a number of bipartisan bills as part of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s ongoing efforts to combat our nation’s opioid and drug abuse crisis. Among the bills passing the subcommittee was the Co-Prescribing to Reduce Overdoses Act (H.R. 3680), legislation introduced by Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD) to create a grant program for co-prescribing of opioid reversal drugs for patients who are at a high risk of overdose. Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) successfully included an amendment in the Co-Prescribing to Reduce Overdoses Act. Griffith’s amendment builds on bipartisan language developed by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) calling on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop best practices for prescribing naloxone, a medication designed to counter the effects of an opioid and prevent overdose, to patients who are at an elevated risk of overdose for opioids or heroin. For more: http://morgangriffith.house.gov/news/...