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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#1F497D">The LA Times has an article today and highlighted that pharma spent
</span><span style="color:red">$250,000 the second half of 2015 lobbying against the LA ordinance alone</span><span style="color:#1F497D">! Please comment and share and thank the LA Times for covering this story.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#1F497D">Heidi<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:blue"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/countygovernment/la-me-drug-takeback-20160328-story.html">http://www.latimes.com/local/countygovernment/la-me-drug-takeback-20160328-story.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:blue"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:30.0pt;background:white">
<span style="font-size:28.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Pharmaceutical industry is lobbying hard against an L.A. County drug take-back proposal<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><img border="0" width="535" height="301" id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D188CB.28035260" alt="Industry fights drug disposal program proposal"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Industry fights drug disposal program proposal
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#999999">Chris Hondros / Getty Images<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.0pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#999999">An L.A. County proposal would require drug companies to finance a disposal program for unused medications and syringes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:12.75pt;background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#999999">An L.A. County proposal would require drug companies to finance a disposal program for unused medications and syringes.
(Chris Hondros / Getty Images)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><img border="0" width="105" height="105" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image010.jpg@01D188C4.B84285F0" alt="Abby Sewell"></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#FF5443"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/la-bio-abby-sewell-staff.html#nt=byline"><span style="color:#FF5443">Abby
Sewell</span></a></span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="mailto:abby.sewell@latimes.com?subject=Regarding:%20%22Pharmaceutical%20industry%20is%20lobbying%20hard%20against%20an%20L.A.%20County%20drug%20take-back%20proposal%22"><b><span style="font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#FF5443">Contact
Reporter</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Venice resident Carol Royce-Wilder received a call a few weeks ago about a proposed program in Los Angeles County that would set up a network of sites where unused medication could be dropped
off for disposal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">It's a topic in which Royce-Wilder, 74, is interested. She said she worries about the proper way to dispose of prescription drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"The guy starts giving me this pitch that it's going to cost a huge amount of taxpayer money if the bill passes," she said. "I assumed from what he said that he was with a consumer organization."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/newsletters/la-newsletter-essential-california-signup-page-htmlstory.html">NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >></a> </span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">He asked if she would be willing to send a letter to her county supervisor, Sheila Kuehl, opposing the proposal. She agreed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The pre-written letter arrived a few days later. Before sending it to Kuehl, Royce-Wilder decided to research the organization behind it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">She was surprised to find that the group, Consumer Healthcare Products Assn., was an industry lobbying group representing over-the-counter drug manufacturers. She said she felt "bamboozled."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">County officials have gotten a lot of those letters. Drug manufacturers have mounted a vigorous lobbying campaign against the county proposal, which would require pharmaceutical companies to
finance a disposal program for unused medications and syringes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Proponents say the program would reduce chemicals ending up in the water supply, and would help curb prescription drug abuse by making sure that unused drugs are safely disposed of rather than
stockpiled in medicine cabinets.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The opponents say it would be costly and have little effect on the problem. They argue that the better solution would be to educate consumers about how to properly dispose of their unused medications,
which they argue would be in the trash in a sealed plastic bag.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Drug take-back programs are common outside the United States but are only beginning to gain traction here. A handful of California counties have adopted ordinances like the one L.A. County is
considering. The first one, adopted by Alameda County in 2012, was held up in court until May 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an industry challenge to the law.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Soon after, L.A. County supervisors voted to explore their own prescription drug take-back program, which would also include over-the-counter drugs and syringes. The county has about 20 collection
sites run by the Sheriff's Department, and some pharmacies have voluntary take-back programs. Once collected, the drugs are incinerated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-most-chronic-pain-patients-should-avoid-opioids-cdc-20160315-story.html"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="458" height="257" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D188CB.28035260" alt="Opioids are bad medicine for chronic pain, say new federal guidelines"></span></a></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-most-chronic-pain-patients-should-avoid-opioids-cdc-20160315-story.html">Opioids are
bad medicine for chronic pain, say new federal guidelines</a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">But officials said there aren't enough available sites for the county's 10 million residents. They want the pharmaceutical industry to finance the creation of a larger network.</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">In the second half of 2015, pharmaceutical industry groups spent nearly $250,000 lobbying the county, according to disclosure filings. Supervisors' offices received dozens of letters and phone
calls from consumers worried that the measure would push up the cost of their medication.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"This is a much more concentrated level of lobbying than I usually see in the county, and I think it's because there's a national issue at stake here," said Kuehl, who said she favors a drug
take-back ordinance. "From what I can tell, they're spending more on lobbying than they ever would on a take-back program."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">It's unclear how much the program would actually cost, as it would be up to the drug manufacturers to design it. Drop-off sites could be at pharmacies or other locations, and measures could
include allowing consumers to mail in their unused drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">In Alameda County, the program still has not been fully implemented but was projected to cost between $330,000 a year — the county's estimate — and $1.2 million — the drug companies'. Pharmaceutical
companies collect $950 million a year in sales revenue there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">A spokesman for the Consumer Healthcare Products Assn. said in a statement that the county proposal would create "an expensive, inefficient, unworkable and ineffective program that would garner
low levels of participation and do little to accomplish the goals the county is seeking to resolve."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Instead, the group wants the county to collaborate on a public education campaign.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"L.A. County is important to us because it presents an immense opportunity to advance a public-private partnership that effectively deals with the issue of safe medicine disposal," the statement
said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Other industry groups, including Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, sent letters taking a similar position.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">On the other side, the take-back program is supported by environmental, waste management and consumer protection groups and by many of the county's smaller cities. The city of Los Angeles has
yet to take a position on it. Individual cities would have to opt in to the county's program, which would initially cover only unincorporated areas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The proposal had been expected to come to the Board of Supervisors for a vote Tuesday, but at the request of Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich — who initially proposed the program — the board
agreed last week to postpone it until May 3.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Antonovich wrote that the county had received "numerous calls and inquiries about the implementation of such a program, necessitating further review."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">His health deputy, Fred Leaf, said the supervisor still wants to find ways to reduce the volume of drugs that find their way into the water supply. But he said they wanted more time to understand
the legal requirements and address the issues raised by the industry groups.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"It's really complicated and we want to make sure that we have a program that really can be rolled out and works," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="mailto:abby.sewell@latimes.com">abby.sewell@latimes.com</a></span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white">
<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/sewella">@sewella</a></span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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