BILL NUMBER: S7605

SPONSOR: KENNEDY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring a
personal use pharmaceutical disposal system be provided at the time of
dispensing an opioid prescription

 
PURPOSE:

This legislation would require pharmacies to provide a personal use
pharmaceutical disposal system at the time of dispensing an opioid
prescription.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the public health law by adding a new section, 3309-b,
which does the following:

1. Requires pharmacies to include a personal use pharmaceutical disposal
system with all opioid prescriptions
              

2. Requires county health departments to provide the personal use phar-
maceutical disposal systems at no cost to the pharmacy. The systems must
be provided to the county by either the manufacturer of each opioid at
no cost to the county health department or acquired by the county health
department through the use of funds made available from the opioid
settlement fund.

3. Allows a county health department to establish administrative proce-
dures to implement the section

4. Defines "personal use pharmaceutical disposal system" and "ultimate
user"

Section 2 establishes an effective date of 180 days after the bill shall
have become law.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between May 2020
and April 2021-the most ever recorded in a single year-according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of drug overdose
deaths was up almost 30% from the 78,000 deaths in the prior year, and
was nearly three times that of traffic accident deaths during the same
period. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there have
been three distinct waves of opioid overdose deaths.(1) The first wave
began in the 1990s with the prescribing of opioids by doctors, and then
an increase of these prescriptions since at least 1999. The second wave
began in 2010 with "rapid increases in overdose deaths involving
heroin." The third wave began in 2013, "with significant increases in
overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids," such as fentanyl.

In 2021, the Office of the New York State Attorney General announced a
settlement in the March 2019 lawsuit against various manufacturers and
distributors, resulting in up to $1.6 billion in funds going to counties
across the state.(2) County Executives of America, which was a party to
numerous lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors,
requested that language similar to this legislation be included in the
final language of the settlement. While that language was ultimately not
included, this legislation seeks to accomplish the same goal of requir-
ing that personal use pharmaceutical disposal systems accompany all
opioid prescriptions dispensed at pharmacies in New York State.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New legislation

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: None.

 
EFFECTIVE "ATE:

This act shall take effect on the 180th day after it shall have become
law.

1 https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html

2 https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-general-james-
reaches-11-billion-agreement-big-three-distributors-treat