Dems take up new addiction treatment legislation 

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is set to consider a package of bills that would significantly overhaul America’s addiction treatment infrastructure. In a hearing this morning, Lev reports, lawmakers will entertain a series of proposals to prevent addiction and improve recovery services. They include:

• Taxing opioid manufacturers 1 cent per milligram of opioid-based pain drugs they produce
• Allowing all physicians licensed to prescribe pain drugs to prescribe the opioid addiction treatment buprenorphine (Right now, they have to undergo an eight-hour training to obtain a waiver.)
• Allow doctors to prescribe patients a three-day supply of opioids not for the purpose of treating pain but to treat withdrawal (Currently, they can prescribe one day at a time, not three.) 

Correction: It is Patients for Affordable Drugs NOW, not Patients for Affordable Drugs, that is behind the ad campaign we covered in last week's D.C. Diagnosis.