Governor Charlie Baker today outlined his legislative proposal to combat what Massachusetts leaders call an opioid epidemic in the commonwealth.Governor Baker was joined by state Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders at the Statehouse Thursday to detail initiatives intended to limit the number of opioids prescribed and allow medical professionals to involuntarily hold drug abusers who are determined to be a threat to themselves or others.
“Our legislation will limit the prescribing practices for first time opioid prescriptions to allow only a 72-hour supply of medication with only a few exceptions,” Baker said. “For the past two years, I and many others have listened to far too many stories of people who come home from the doctor, dentist or the hospital with 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 tabs.”
Although the bill does allow prescribing more opioids in emergency conditions, as judged by a medical practitioner, the Massachusetts Medical Society says the 72-hour limit is concerning and could impede effective pain management. Governor Baker says the legislation parallels a current law that allows a medical professional to hold a person involuntarily for mental health reasons.
“Right now someone suffering from substance abuse disorders can only be held for treatment through a court order,” Baker said. “Those orders must be granted while the court is in session and it prevents people from seeking help on nights, weekends and holidays when the court is not in session. This limits access for family and patients in need of a 24-hour front door for treatment for substance abuse emergencies and we want to change that to get more help to people faster.”
MMS says this provision raises civil liberty questions and may discourage people from seeking treatment. The legislation calls for the state to develop curriculum to educate athletes, coaches and parents on the dangers of opioids to manage pain. It would be rolled into the current mandatory concussion education program. Secretary Sudders says in 2014 there were more than 4.6 million prescriptions written resulting in more than 255 million Schedule 2 and 3-opioids in Massachusetts.
“The bill also proposes to increase the use of the prescription monitoring program or PMP to issuing an opiate prescription,” Sudders said. “This portion of the act would require every practitioner, including emergency room clinicians, to check the PMP prior to writing a prescription for a controlled substance.”
MMS says this portion appears to disregard long-standing physician-patient relationships. MMS states the diversion and abuse of prescription opioids has plateaued or decreased from 2011-2013, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, and that the supply of opioids and heroin is increasingly coming from sources outside the medical system. But Baker says data points on prescribing, treatment, addiction, overdoses and deaths track on the same line for most of the past decade.
“I have lots of friends and colleagues in the healthcare world,” Baker said. “I am astonished by the casual nature and the casual attitude that I find when I talk to them about these medications and issues. That has got to change. Period.”
The legislation would also prohibit the placement of some women who are civilly committed to treatment from being placed in a women’s prison in Framingham. Lawmakers have tried to stop this practice since 1987.
The House and Senate have each drafted their own legislation to combat opioid abuse. Without taking a stance, House Speaker Robert DeLeo says he’s had talks about the state’s civil commitment law that will inform his decision.
Audio is courtesy of New England Cable News.
