H.B. 257 Opiate Information Amendments: transcript

I know this bill is really short, so it is Short, short. Really fast. My intern is bringing up a paper. If that could be handed out, that would be fantastic. Okay. So the story of this bill is actually that it originated in the social services sub appropriations committee. And, you know, we're looking at ways that we can save money and stuff like that. And so that's what we figured out here, was that we have one thing in the state of Utah that we are funding to the tune of, of $14,700 per year ongoing. And there are tons of different industries that have, um, you know, similar things that they need to do to be in compliance with law, but the state is not funding those things. And so this was one of those easy ways that we could remove a little bit of money going out from the state and free that money up so that we can pay for more crucial services for people that are in really bad health situations that we hear about all the time. So, uh, HB 2 57 basically makes it so that the state will still create a flyer. It has one already a, a pamphlet that can be handed out, but they're not going to print it and, um, pay for that expense anymore. Instead, the person, the pharmacist, the company, whoever's selling those drugs, would need to have that as part of their expenses. And this puts it in alignment with things like no smoking signage that has to be put places, or maybe, um, things like labeling requirements on furniture or, um, safety notices, um, discrimination or anti-discrimination notices, um, OSHA injury logs, those types of things that we have to do in our state, in, in some businesses that we're associated with. And that we have to take those, those safety precautions on as, as part of our job that we do. So it, it isn't the proper role of government anyway, to pay for private business, um, supplies to do their, their business. And so basically that's what this is, is it would just say that we'll give them the, the language and the pamphlet in A PDF or something that they need, but then they can handle how they distribute that in accordance with law, and nothing is changing in the law as far as the way that they have to distribute that. Thank you. Does that conclude your presentation? It does.

I'll take 45 seconds. Okay. Um, the sub totally solved our, our concern with this, our concern was that we, before there was, um, Oh, yes. Oh, I'm sorry. Maryanne Martindale, Utah Academy Family Physicians. Thank you. Um, our concern with the, with the initial bill was that when it just put it just in the hands of the pharmacy, that there could be, um, differentiation between the materials delivered. The sub provides a uniform definition or, or help for this. So we think this is the right place. Obviously physicians are talking to their patients about the concerns with opioid use, but having it when you get your prescription makes a lot of sense. So we think this is a great idea. Thank you. Great.

Is it already subbed to one? Oh, no, we need to do that, I think. Okay. Then I would like to make a motion that we move for substitute.

Um, this change is workable. Uh, I think this is a, a good change in it. I mean, it, it basically moves it from printing out to being available easily for folks.

I do. I would like to make a motion that we favorably recommend House Bill 2 57 for substitute.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. This is a pretty simple bill. It was actually born out of our work in the social services appropriation subcommittee. So we were looking at the way that we were spending all of the money and found out that there was this one area where the state is paying for opiate, uh, pamphlets to be handed out at pharmacies. And there are a lot of other programs where we mandate things such as no smoking, signed, osha, injury logs, all kinds of things. But the state doesn't pay for them. They're usually just part of whoever's doing that business is part of their business. And so what this bill does is it just basically makes it so that the DHHS will still create the pamphlets, but it's going to be up to the pharmacist to print and display those pamphlets and get them to their patrons that come into their, uh, businesses. And with that, I'm open to any questions.

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to this bill. Uh, years ago, uh, I worked with the, the, the group that was looking at our, uh, opioid fatality numbers and what we could do to reduce our, our deaths by overdose. And one of the national best practices was educating the public about the risks of opioids, the risks of addiction, uh, uh, alternatives, uh, ways to dispose of opioids. Uh, since we put this program in place, we in conjunction with other programs, have seen our overdose, uh, rate decrease, uh, quite significantly. Um, it's pretty common sense that a national pharmacy chain, such as maybe CVS or Walgreens, if they are asked to, uh, now produce and create and distribute this brochure, uh, the they're, that's not gonna be something in their budget. Uh, not something that probably shareholders, uh, that are looking for return on their investment are willing to fund. This was done as a simple public health outreach education promotion campaign. So I, uh, encourage the body to not support this. I, you know, commend the sponsor for looking at ways to save money, but we have seen our overdose rate go down and I think that public education is a tremendous, uh, use of funds to protect our loved ones. Thank you Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you Mr. Speaker. There is nothing changing in this bill as far as notifying the public and making sure that they still get the same messages that they've always been getting. So let me tell you how much this bill is saving the state. It's saving the state. $14,700. The pharmaceutical business is a billion dollar business, billions of dollars businesses. And so I think if across the state we have a whole bunch of pharmacies that are somehow having to split $14,700, that they can do that in their operational costs. That isn't a big expense for them, especially because this is a product they are selling at their own private businesses. And I really just think there's a principle here as well as saving money. It is that our job is to say this is the regulation for how to keep the people safe. Our job is not to pay for private businesses to do that, that that's their job. And we need to make sure that we stay in our lane with the without. I hope my colleagues will support.