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Mass AG Healey Calling For Broad Approach To Battle Opiate Abuse

Jim Levulis
/
WAMC
Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey speaking with representatives Smitty Pignatelli, Gailanne Cariddi, Tricia Farley-Bouvier and Paul Mark.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey met with Berkshire legislators and law enforcement in Pittsfield Friday to discuss how opiate addiction is affecting the region and what to do about it.Healey toured Berkshire Health Systems with the region’s legislative delegation along with Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless and Sheriff Tom Bowler. The first-term Democrat says heroin and opiate addiction, recognized as an epidemic across the Northeast, crosses class and demographic lines.

“The first I heard of this crisis was here in western Mass two years ago when I began a run for attorney general,” Healey said. “So we need to be doing everything we can for not only Berkshire County, but for counties and communities across this state. That means more funding for treatment, resources and a more robust prescription drug monitoring program. It means to working to support efforts of prevention including education for young people and education to the public about the need to get rid of medication hanging around in your cabinet and get it to a safe disposal box. From a law enforcement perspective we’ll crack down on some of the high-level drug trafficking that we see. We still see a lot of pills out there being diverted to the black market. Four out of five of heroin users today started with prescription pain medication.”

Republican Governor Charlie Baker announced an opioid task force earlier this year that includes the attorney general. With the purpose of driving legislation, the group expects to formally release its recommendations later this month. Healey says some of the initiatives she mentioned will be included.

“And then the important thing will be action,” Healey said. “Because you can have all the recommendations in the world, but we need to be really focused on immediate action. Because people are dying every day. People are ODing every day in this state. We see the affect of it in our emergency rooms, community courts, what police, fire and others are having to deal with. To say its urgent doesn’t begin to describe it.”

Earlier this year, Governor Baker announced the first-ever public release of state-collected data on the number of painkiller prescriptions written and overdose deaths in each county. Topping out at 16.8, 15.7 and 15.5 percent of a population, respectively, it finds Plymouth, Bristol and Barnstable counties have the highest rates of persons with “activity of concern” such as receiving prescriptions from different doctors or pharmacies. Hampden is next highest at 14.8 percent while Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire counties range from roughly 11 to 9 percent. 

State Representative Smitty Pignatelli of Lenox says despite the Berkshires’ rural landscape, it is not immune to the ills of drug addiction.

“There is a sickness here that we need to deal with,” Pignatelli said. “We need to deal with fairly and equitably. I’m a big champion of health parity. We had a big, long discussion about health parity. We need to be treating substance abusers like we would a cancer patient. So health parity, getting the insurance companies to recognize that.”

With funding a constant issue, Sheriff Bowler says his office continues to look at a program that treats addicts while they await trial. Healey says the state needs to build a robust prescription monitoring program to stop doctor or pharmacy shopping and limit over-prescribing. She adds that Narcan, an overdose reversal drug, is not as available as it needs to be.

“That’s one thing that we’re working on, the attorney general’s office, with the legislature,” Healey said. “To get a bulk purchasing arrangement in place so that that is much easier to come by. It is a life-saving medication and we’ve seen the benefits of Narcan and its use throughout the state. That’s something that we were focused on…a few weeks ago we reached out to the maker of Narcan and we’re trying to work on an arrangement now to make that more available here in the state.”

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
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