Senators Cassidy, Hassan, Kustoff and Kuster Reintroduce Pill Press Legislation, The STEER Act

The Minden Press-Herald is reporting that a group of U.S. Senators has reintroduced the Substance Tableting and Encapsulating Enforcement and Registration (STEER) act in an effort to regulate the purchase and importation of pill presses and encapsulation machines.

According to a 2017 report by CNN, U.S. Customs and Border protection was seizing pill presses at a rate that was 19 times higher than similar seizures in 2011.  CNN connected he dramatic increase in pill press purchases to the rise of illicit fentanyl being introduced into the U.S.

The proposed legislation, H.R. 6554, will require that anyone who owns, purchases or imports pill press must be registered them with the U.S. Attorney General.

Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the bill’s sponsors described to the Ripon Advocate the purpose behind the legislation, “We can save lives by getting dangerous counterfeit pills off the streets. This bipartisan legislation gives law enforcement resources to shut down black-market pill makers and protect our communities.”

To learn how pill presses are being used to produce deadly counterfeit pills in the United States please read PSM’s report “Illegal Pill Presses: An Overlooked Threat to American Patients.”