Around the region, suspected heroin overdoses continue to tally up. Back in March, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a public health emergency and designated $20 million to address the problem. A task force is coming up with recommendations. In Franklin County, Mass., an area hard hit by heroin, officials are not waiting around for the report before taking action. NEPR’s Jill Kaufman spoke about the growing problem this week with Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan.
Medical industry groups in Massachusetts are starting to take stock of proposed anti-addiction legislation announced last week by state Senate leaders.
The proposal attempts to offer more treatment options to addicts and to limit prescriptions of opiates that have high abuse potential. Rick Gulla is spokesperson for the Massachusetts Medical Society. He says he believes, based on a first reading of the bill, that doctors would still have the final say on which medications their patients get.
“There may be several implications for physicians on how they practice medicine, the physician-patient relationship, and we continue to look at each section of the bill,” Gulla says.
He says doctors want to see a balance between the needs of patients in pain and the risks of having too many opiates in circulation. The Massachusetts Pharmacists Association released a statement praising the Senate for addressing the addiction problem, while also urging better education of family members on the dangers of taking other people’s prescriptions. The full Senate is expected to take up the legislation this week.
As the wait continues for Massachusetts House leaders to produce an economic development bill and legislation targeting gun violence, the Senate on Tuesday plans to pass a bill addressing opiate addiction.
On Wednesday the House will roll out a reworked version of the $36.3 billion dollar fiscal 2015 budget. It’s the final state budget for outgoing Senate President Therese Murray, who was elected in 1992 when annual state spending totaled about $15 billion.
Meanwhile, House leaders keep saying legislation to address gun violence is a priority, but they’ve been slow to unveil a proposal after delegating research on the issue for months to a working group of outsiders.
All told, six major bills – welfare reform, drug compounding industry regulation, election reforms, natural gas leaks, domestic violence, and mercury product recycling – are before conference committees, after having cleared the branches in differing forms.
For Susan Kaplan’s conversation with Matt Murphy about the week ahead on Beacon Hill, click the audio player above.
Massachusetts Senate leaders are calling for new, sweeping anti-addiction measures.
The legislation would hit the opiate addiction crisis at multiple stages — from prescription to treatment.
“This is a bold move, we know that,” says Senate President Therese Murray. “We have to break the cycle of addiction before it breaks us.”
Among the proposed rules, all doctors would get training in prescription monitoring before they could renew their license. Pharmacists would have to substitute safer painkillers for opiates that can be easily abused. The public health commissioner could order pharmacy products off the shelves if they start showing up in synthetic drug recipes.
“However, I want to assure the people of Massachusetts that we are not here to stop people with chronic pain or who need end of life care to get the drugs and treatment they need to lead comfortable and productive lives,” Murray adds.
Another part of the plan targets insurers — they could no longer demand prior authorization before an addict gets into detox or clinical treatment. Murray says the full Senate is expected to take up the bill on Tuesday.
The State House News Service contributed to this story.