Ross Joins Senate to Adopt Bill to Reduce Opioid Addiction

Senator Richard J. Ross joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday to unanimously adopt a bill with a goal to reduce the rate of opioid addiction and increase efforts to retool pain management practices through policy changes at state agencies and municipal health, safety and education departments, said an announcement.

The Senate bill, An Act relative to substance use prevention, was developed from recent findings of the Senate Special Opioid Committee, of which Sen. Ross is a member, following a year-long effort to produce recommendations to further strengthen opioid abuse prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery options.

“Over the past several years, we have seen with alarming regularity an increase in drug-related deaths across the Commonwealth,” said Sen. Ross in a statement. “This opioid epidemic touches every community and no family is immune to it. Last session, we passed comprehensive legislation that made a strike against this epidemic, but today we went a step further by focusing on education and prevention.”

The Senate Special Opioid Committee convened in January of 2014, a response to the substantial increase in reported overdose emergencies and fatalities across Massachusetts. Deaths from heroin and other opioids totaled more than 1,200 in 2014, a spike of 34 percent over 2013 and 88 percent greater than 2012.

Components of this legislation include:

• Directing the newly formed Drug Formulary Commission to publish a list of non-opiate pain management products that may be used as lower risk alternatives,
• Senators considered more than forty amendments during debate of the bill and adopted several sponsored or cosponsored by members of the Republican Caucus, which:
• Lessens unused and unwanted prescriptions by requiring a practitioner to consult with a patient to determine preferences for reduces quantities and dosages of opioid medications, a so-called partial fill option,
• Assists local police departments by providing service referral and education training for individuals seeking treatment at local police departments,
• Makes a requirement for school districts to conduct student drug screenings to be subject to state appropriation,
• Creates a special commission to examine roadside drug testing,
• Requires an assessment of the capacity for inpatient substance abuse treatment,
• Includes a module on addictive substances to be part of driver education courses for Junior Operators,
• Requires that a practitioner receive informed consent from the parent or guardian of the minor prior to prescribing a controlled substance,

Requires acute hospitals to report the number of newborns exposed to controlled substances.

“It is my hope that this legislation will not only reach those who are already in need of addiction treatments, but also our children who are most susceptible to outside influences,” said Sen. Ross in a statement. “This legislation provides key tools for our schools, physicians, and public safety officials to limit the amount of unused and unwanted prescription pills available, keep our communities safe, and ultimately save lives.”