Title: Opioid Quota Reform Act
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
Opioid Quota Reform Act
This bill amends the Controlled Substances Act to require the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to consider additional factors—the impact on overall public health and rates of diversion, abuse, and overdose deaths—in setting and adjusting production and manufacturing quotas for fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, and hydromorphone.
Additionally, if the DEA increases the production quota of fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, or hydromorphone, then it must explain why the public health benefits of increasing the quota outweigh the consequences of potential diversion.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2535 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2535

 To amend the Controlled Substances Act to strengthen Drug Enforcement 
          Administration discretion in setting opioid quotas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 12, 2018

Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Grassley, and Mrs. Feinstein) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Controlled Substances Act to strengthen Drug Enforcement 
          Administration discretion in setting opioid quotas.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Opioid Quota Reform Act''.

SEC. 2. STRENGTHENING CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEA OPIOID QUOTAS.

    Section 306 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 826) is 
amended--
            (1) in the last sentence of subsection (a), by striking `` 
        and not in terms of individual pharmaceutical dosage forms 
        prepared from or containing such a controlled substance''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(i)(1) In fixing and adjusting production and manufacturing 
quotas under this section for fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, 
oxymorphone, and hydromorphone, the Attorney General shall consider the 
impact of the production and manufacturing quotas on overall public 
health and rates of diversion, abuse, and overdose deaths related to 
these controlled substances in the United States. Any of the 
considerations in this subsection or in subsection (a) may be used to 
determine changes to levels of such production and manufacturing quotas 
in a given year.
    ``(2)(A) For any year in which the approved production quota for 
fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxymorphone, or hydromorphone is 
higher than the approved production quota for the substance in the 
previous year, the Attorney General shall include in its final order an 
explanation of why the public health benefits of increasing such quota 
outweigh the consequences of having an increased volume of such 
substance available for sale, and potential diversion, in the United 
States.
    ``(B) Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
subsection and every year thereafter, the Attorney General shall 
provide to the Caucus on International Narcotics Control, Committee on 
the Judiciary, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and 
Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on the 
Judiciary, Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Committee on 
Appropriations of the House of Representatives, the following 
information with regard to each of the substances described in 
subparagraph (A):
            ``(i) An anonymized count of the total number of 
        manufacturers issued individual manufacturing quotas that year 
        for that substance.
            ``(ii) A count of how many such manufacturers were issued 
        an approved manufacturing quota that was higher than the quota 
        issued to that manufacturer for that substance in the previous 
        year.
    ``(3) Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this 
subsection, the Attorney General shall submit to Congress a report on 
how the Attorney General will ensure that the annual process of fixing 
and adjusting production and manufacturing quotas under this section 
takes into consideration--
            ``(A) efforts to reduce the costs, injuries, and deaths 
        associated with the diversion and abuse of prescription opioids 
        and heroin, including changes in the accepted medical use of 
        certain controlled substances; and
            ``(B) data collection and evaluation of the volume of 
        controlled substances that are diverted and collected from 
        approved drug collection receptacles, mail-back programs, and 
        take-back events.''.
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