Prepared August 10, 2018
Hearings, Briefings, Meetings
(Not included here are the several hearings, markups and briefings in which NIDA played no direct role.)
May 17 – Dr. Volkow accompanied NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins to a Senate Labor/HHS Appropriations subcommittee hearing. She had an opportunity to answer several questions focused on opioids.
May 30 – Dr. Compton served on a panel as part of a congressional briefing titled Federal and Philanthropic Investments in Revitalizing the Nation’s Communities. The briefing was organized by the National Prevention Science Coalition.
June 6 – Dr. Stein served on a panel as part of a congressional briefing titled Opioid Crisis Response: Social Work Workforce Responds. The briefing was organized by the National Association of Social Workers.
June 20 – Dr. Volkow served on a panel as part of a congressional briefing focused on the opioids crisis, this time organized by the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
June 28 – Dr. Volkow served on a panel as part of a briefing organized to educate congressional members and staff on the Federal Response to the Opioids Crisis. This event was organized by the Alliance for Health Policy and the Commonwealth Fund.
Legislation of Interest
There has been significant activity in both the House and the Senate throughout the year to advance large numbers of bills and discussion drafts of bills addressing many aspects of the opioid crisis, including prevention, treatment, law enforcement, Medicare/Medicaid, FDA authority, and medications development. In the House, after working on dozens of different bills, H.R. 6 was passed on June 26. The bill can be found at https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr6/BILLS-115hr6pcs.pdf. Action is still pending in the Senate. The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee voted on April 24 to advance S. 2680 Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018 for a Senate floor vote, but it is not clear if/when this bill will get a vote. This bill combines over 40 proposals, and will likely be combined with bills from other Senate committees before a final vote.
Other Legislation of Interest
- H.R. 2851 Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act of 2017 (SITSA Act)
- S. 1327 Stop the Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act of 2017 (SITSA Act)
- S. 2635 Ending the Fentanyl Crisis Act of 2018
- S. 2481 Stop Trafficking in Fentanyl Act of 2018
- S. 207 Synthetic Abuse and Labeling of Toxic Substances Act of 2017 (SALTS Act)
- S. 2710 Protecting Moms and Infants Act
And, of course, there are many marijuana focused bills still pending in the Congress.
- H.R.331 – States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act
- H.R.714 – Legitimate Use of Medicinal Marihuana Act
- H.R.715 – Compassionate Access Act
- H.R.975 – Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2017
- H.R.1227 – Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017
- H.R.1810 – Small Business Tax Equity Act of 2017 and S.777 – Small Business Tax Equity Act of 2017
- H.R.1820 – Veterans Equal Access Act
- H.R.1823 – Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act
- H.R.1824 – Responsibly Addressing the Marijuana Policy Gap Act of 2017
- H.R.1841 – Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act
- H.R.2020 – To provide for the rescheduling of marijuana into schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act
- H.R.2273 – Charlotte’s Web Medical Access Act of 2017
- H.R.3252 – Second Chance for Students Act
- H.R.3391 – Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2017
- H.R.3534 – State Marijuana and Regulatory Tolerance Enforcement Act
- H.R.4408, H.R.3964, S.892 – Opioid Addiction Prevention Act of 2017
- H.R.4815 – Marijuana Justice Act of 2018 and S.1689 – Marijuana Justice Act of 2017
- H.R.4816 – Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Funding for Marijuana Suppression Act of 2018
- H.R.4825 – MEDS Act and S.1803 – MEDS Act
- H.R.5050 – Sensible Enforcement of Cannabis Act of 2018
- H.R. 5634 – To increase the number of manufacturers registered under the Controlled Substances Act to manufacture cannabis for legitimate research purposes, to authorize health care providers of the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide recommendations to veterans regarding participation in federally-approved cannabis clinical trials, and for other purposes
- H.R.6152 – Marijuana in Federally Assisted Housing Parity Act of 2018
- H.R.6495 – Marijuana Data Collection Act
- H.R.6589 – To amend title 5, United States Code, to remove limitations on Federal employment for an individual legally using marijuana under the law of the State in which the individual resides, and for other purposes.
- S.776 – Marijuana Revenue and Regulation Act
- S.780 – Responsibly Addressing the Marijuana Policy Gap Act of 2017
- S.1008 – Therapeutic Hemp Medical Access Act of 2017
- S.1276 – Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act
- S.1374 and S.1764 and H.R.2920 – Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act of 2017
- S.3174 – Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act