>> good afternoon, chairman feinstein and senator klobuchar and senator grassley. i want to thank you for inviting the substance abuse and mental health services administration to participate in this panel. i echo the comments of my colleagues regarding the importance of the topics of this hearing. i will focus on samhsa's programs and activities though we work with federal partners, states, tribes, and local communities. according to the national survey on drug use and health, which we conduct, 4.9 million people reported nonmedical use of pain relievers in the past month in 2012. 335,000 reported past month use of heroin, a figure that has more than doubled in six years. in 2012, more than 1.89 million people reported initiating nonmedical use of pain relievers, and 156,000 reported initial use of heroin. one challenge in combating the misuse of pain relievers is educating the public in the dangers of sharing medication. according to the national survey, 54% of those who obtained pain relievers for nonmedical use in the past year received them from a friend or re

>> good afternoon, chairman feinstein and senator klobuchar and senator grassley. i want to thank you for inviting the substance abuse and mental health services administration to participate in this panel. i echo the comments of my colleagues regarding the importance of the topics of this hearing. i will focus on samhsa's programs and activities though we work with federal partners, states, tribes, and local communities. according to the national survey on drug use and health, which we conduct, 4.9 million people reported nonmedical use of pain relievers in the past month in 2012. 335,000 reported past month use of heroin, a figure that has more than doubled in six years. in 2012, more than 1.89 million people reported initiating nonmedical use of pain relievers, and 156,000 reported initial use of heroin. one challenge in combating the misuse of pain relievers is educating the public in the dangers of sharing medication. according to the national survey, 54% of those who obtained pain relievers for nonmedical use in the past year received them from a friend or re

the problem for her is she is out there getting criticized the performance of those four, biden, klobucharand warren and martin o'malley, they are not great, they are all pretty decent. it gives them an excuse to go there. it's helping them even if it is not hurting her. >> she's a smart woman you're a smart man. you don't think any of them will try to beat her. >> nbc news has a new poll out they say that key races are tighter than my grip on the new barry manilow duets album. many are all within the margin of error. it does not really matter who is up or who is down. on bloomberg politics.com, we have something that is more interesting than another set of polls. we call it "the persuadables." we show you exactly what it's going to take vote wise for both parties to win in these contested races. talk about what the methodology was. >> sasha has gone through a lot of detailed reporting, working with a lot of our other reporters at bloomberg politics, and tried to sort of unpack, and talking into granular way that what it would take for democrats to be able to hold on to election night. sas

in the united states senate, also completely apartisan in nature, from missouri senator and amy klobuchar of minnesota. this is a challenge. there are new forms of terribly fraudulent behavior that occur not only in america, but from outside our country as well. i hope the senate will consider this bill at an early date. >> how is this fraud being conducted? via new technology? >> yes. there was an act passed in 2009, also completely bipartisan in nature, that addressed this issue. but technology marches forward, and the bill which i have been ,nvolved with includes texting which was not in the original bill, along with new forms of communication. for example, telephoning someone through an ipad. this is just a demonstration that congress has to keep up with new technology that exists. it is our responsibility to do so. for example, there was a person in new jersey who was defrauded out of i think $5,500 when she thought she was answering a telephone call and the color id -- caller id said it was the local police department, and it was not the local police department at all. there was an

look at the past week among democrats, vice president biden, hillary clinton, senator amy klobuchar fromta, bernie sanders from vermont and elizabeth warren on the campaign trail helping themselves but on the republican side plenty of travel, paul ryan, ted cruz, rick perry, mike huckabee out there to help 2014 candidates maybe also to help themselves. molly ball i start with you and elizabeth warren. lot of people think is she maneuvering around for 2016 in she talked to dploria borger, this seems pretty clear. >> i am not running for president. i am not running for president. i am not running for president. >> got it? you got it, right? i am not running for president. pretty clear, end of discussion. file that one away, except, molly ball, here's what she said to "people" magazine. i don't think so. if there's any lesson i learned in the last five years don't be so sure what lies ahead, there are amazing doors that could be opened. ding, ding, ding, ding. >> she keeps saying it and we have to -- she keeps saying she's not. even that quote the earth could cough in and the zombie apocaly

united states senate also completely bipartisan in nature by senator roy blunt of missouri and amy klobucharof minnesota. this is really a challenge for new forms of fraudulent behavior can occur at not only here in america but from outside our country as well. i hope the senate will consider this bill at an early date. >> host: how is this fraud being conducted? is it being connected via new technology? >> guest: yes. there was an act passed in 2009 completely bipartisan in nature, that addresses this issue but technology marches forward and the bill which i have been involved with includes texting which was not in the original bill and also new forms of communication. for example telephoning somebody during ipad and this is just a demonstration that congress has to keep up with the new technology that exists and it's our responsibility to do so. for example there was a person in new jersey who was defrauded out of the i thank $5500 when she thought she was answering a telephone call and the caller i.d. said it was a local police department and it was not the local police department at all.

and i was at a community meeting just two weeks ago with senator klobuchar and congressman ellison, andwith the community understood this is really important to get those resources and. mcfadden: a couple comments. a couple comments. al, i'm glad you voted to support the president and the arming of certain rebels. i want to make sure the record is clear. this president was advised by every member of the national security council and his secretary of state to arm the free syrian rebels two years ago. and he declined to do it. he was also advised by every member of the chief of staff, the military army chief of staff, to keep a residual force in iraq, and he declined to disappear so this is a president that al franken has supported 97% of the time, and when we talk about the terrorist recruitment in minnesota, i've met with community leaders in east african committee. one of the biggest concerns is education. we have the worst education outcome for minorities. the worst. lower than 50% and al franken sits on the education committee. he is complicit. these are the root causes that need to

in light of senator klobuchar's discussion with me, i want to first turn to you, doctor and ask you on prescription drug monitoring issue, i think you wanted to say something there. so i hope that you have an opportunity to do that. >> i did. thank you for asking me. most states as we have heard have prescription drug monitoring programs. we can invest in interstate data sharing. unfortunately, they are not being used. they may be one of the best tools we have in country for bringing this crisis under control. and except in new york, kentucky and tennessee, the three states that made it mandatory for doctors to use them, they are just not being used. if there is some way that you can incentivize states to make it mandatory for their physicians to use them, i think that would be very helpful. >> use what? >> prescription drug monitoring. >> well, we ought to do that. that's something that we can do. >> that's what you are saying we should do, we should make that mandatory. >> absolutely. >> unfunded mandate. >> a worthwhile one though. let me -- i had an opening statement, too. madam ch

senator grassley, you haven't made your statement and then senator klobuchar would also like to make an opening statement. >> i think since you described the situation very well, i'm going to start out at the middle of my statement and refer to something that you and i learned about the existence of a database by doctors maintained by purdue pharmaceuticals. purdue markets oxycontin, one of the most abused prescription opiates. the database allegedly contained information about doctors who engaged in reckless prescribing practices. during my investigation revealed many state medical boards as well as the center for medicare and medicaid services didn't know about this database. we encourage these organizations as well as dea to contact purdue about it. as a result, the information is now in the hands of authorities who could take action against irresponsible doctors. the purpose of this hearing is to learn more about what else is being done to combat this epidemic and what role congress can make. a multifacetted approach makes common sense. prevention effort through which doctors and