State Pushes For Better Monitoring of Opioid Enhancers

Photo Credit: Medscape

Norfolk Country District Attorney Michael Morissey and Massachusetts State Senator John Keenan, partnered together last week before a Joint Committee on Public Health, to alert committee members to the growing use of Gabapentin in combination with opioid prescription drugs and heroin.

The drug Gabapentin has an enhancing effect on the euphoria associated with opioid and heroin use.

The two are looking to create a bill that would include Gabapentin in the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PMP) - a system that provides data on prescription drug dispensing across the state.

The current system collects data on drugs classified as Schedule II through Schedule V, reflecting a risk classification system used by the federal government.

Gabapentin is not listed in the particular schedules, but a state law does allow the commissioner for public health to designate additional drugs that must be recorded in the PMP.

Keenan’s proposed bill would direct the commissioner to require that Gabapentin and other similar products to be monitored under the PMP.

“This is simply a matter of providing better information that can help us combat substance abuse,” said Keenan. “It is a small but important part of a broader strategy that we will be introducing this year.”

Morrissey says his office is increasingly seeing Gabapentin found in connection with overdose deaths or arrests for possession and distribution of other drugs.

“The evidence is clear that this drug is becoming more popular for abuse,” Morrissey says, “and this is a simple measure that heightens our awareness and ability to mitigate this risk.”