Congressman Trone Discusses Dispose Unused Medications and Prescriptions ‘DUMP’ Opioids Act
Credit: WFMD
He said it’s important to have more places where people can get rid of unused opioids.
Frederick, MD (KB) President Biden recently signed a bill that would make is easier and safer to dispose of opioids into law. That’s according to Congressman David Trone who was a sponsor of the bill.
“What it does is a biggest area where folks often get into addiction is just in your medicine cabinet,” Trone explained. “You’re at the dentist, the doctor and you had medication that they gave you for 30 days and you used it for five days, and that then is a gateway for folks who start addiction.”
The Dispose Unused Medications and Prescriptions (DUMP) Opioids Act makes it easier and safer for residents to dispose of opioids because it allows anyone, not just VA patients, to dispose of controlled substances medications at VA centers.
“That’s so important — the more places we can have available where people can get rid of those unused opioids — it takes only seven days, if you’re taking an addictive opioid for seven days in a row, one year later, statistically, you have a 15% chance to be addicted. That’s scary,” said Trone.
Trone said he has a personal connection to this issue.
“I lost a nephew to Fentanyl — he was 24, he died alone in a hotel room after I had worked with him for over five years to try and help him turn his life around,” said Trone. “But all of America is affected by this. We lost 93,000 people last year to overdoses. That’s a record that we did not want to set.”
Trone said the bill received bipartisan support. It passed the Senate earlier this year with unanimous support.
