According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioid overdoses claimed over 28,000 lives in 2014, including 452 from Indiana. It’s an epidemic that is continuing to make headline news across the country. And new findings from the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity have recently linked the political impact of the opioid industry on federal and state lawmakers.
The study looks at nearly a decade (2006-2015) of political contributions and lobbying tactics, as well as the amount of drug deaths and prescriptions issued. The data revolves around a coalition of pharmaceutical companies and their nonprofit allies, a group called the Pain Care Forum. The forum was coordinated by a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.
Pharmaceutical members of the PCF include Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly & Co., Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson. Some of the allied members include the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Pain Foundation and Medical Pain Management.
The Center for Public Integrity stated in its data that for almost a decade, those forum members spent over $740 million lobbying in the nation's capital and in statehouses across the country on an array of issues, including keeping opioids accessible.
For instance, the data shows that members of the PCF gave over $1.9 million to Indiana politicians from 2006-2015, by way of 1,529 contributions. Over $1.3 million of it went to government officials on the federal level, and roughly $373,000 went to state candidates.
Several of those PCF contributions were even linked to federal and state politicians in northern Indiana and Cass County.
U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski, who represents a portion of northern Indiana including Pulaski County, was the benefactor of $26,600 from members of the PCF, most of which came from Eli Lilly & Co., Pfizer and Boston Scientific Corp.
On the state level, PCF contributions to Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, totaled $700, with contributions from Abbott Laboratories and Pfizer. Rep. Don Lehe, R-Brookston, was given $4,100. The PCF members gave Rep. Heath VanNatter, R-Kokomo, $1,200, and Rep. Bill Friend, R-Macy, had a total of $450 from PCF.
The state ranks 26th in the nation in amount of contributions per year from members of the PCF.
The report also looked at the amount of registered state lobbyists employed by members of the PCF. Indiana ranked 42nd in the nation in that category, with an average of 18 lobbyists per year from 2006-2015 that were employed by the PCF.
The findings also included a look at Indiana drug deaths from 2006-2014. Indiana had a total of 8,392 deaths during that time period. Deaths increased each year for a total change of 59 percent. The CPI did state the drug deaths were not all related to opioid abuse, but the majority of them came from that category.
One highlight of the findings was the amount of opioid prescriptions handed out each year to Indiana residents. Last year, doctors wrote 5,837,382 opioid-related prescriptions, down from over 6 million in 2013.
One of the reasons for the decline in prescriptions might be the new guidelines the CDC laid out urging doctors to stop overprescribing opioids to treat chronic pain because their risks often outweigh the benefits.
Attorney General Greg Zoeller also has put his own emergency plans in place to combat the opioid epidemic. In 2012, Zoeller launched a statewide Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force, and its priorities included advancing legislation to help combat prescription drug abuse. According to the attorney general’s website, the task force helped pass legislation in 2013 that required the Indiana Medical Licensing Board to write rules on proper opioid prescribing. Since the emergency rules took effect in December 2013, Indiana has seen an almost 11 percent decrease in the amount of opioids being prescribed to patients.
The state has also recently passed several bills to try to curb the opioid epidemic. One of them is Senate Bill 297, which deals with creating new and better addiction treatment options for individuals seeking help for opioid abuse. Lehe was on the bill’s committee. Another one of those bills is Senate Bill 270, which requires state employee health plans, Medicaid and policies of accident and sickness insurance and health maintenance organization contracts to provide coverage for at least one opioid abuse deterrent drug.
Nevertheless, the CPI’s findings still state the pockets of politicians are growing heavier with the help of those pharmaceutical companies, essentially using the economy of pain for profit and a foothold in America’s government.
And with the cost of prescription drugs increasing at alarming rates, and the big pharmaceutical companies continuing to see increased overall revenues — Eli Lilly & Co. made $19.9 billion last year alone, the CPI said — the politics of pain doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.