News

In Opioid Fight, Mass. Gov Wants Pill Limit, Easier Committing of Addicts

Matt Stout

10/16/2015

Oct. 15--Gov. Charlie Baker today unveiled a sweeping bill targeting the state's opioid scourge, including controversial measures to limit the prescriptions doctors can dole out and to give hospitals new powers to commit addicts if they're deemed dangerous -- something only judges can do now.

Baker, speaking at a late-morning press conference, said he's been struck by stories detailing the massive flow of prescription opiates to patients, sometimes in 60- to 80-tablet bundles at once.

"This has got to stop," the Swampscott Republican said.

The legislation -- which follows separate bills in the House and Senate -- would limit first-time patients who are getting an opiate prescription to a 72-hour supply. The same limit would apply to those seeing a new doctor.

State officials said there are certain exemptions built in, including for those with chronic pain or in hospice care.

"I'm a health care guy," said Baker, who once headed Harvard Pilgrim. "I have lots of friends and lots of colleagues in the health care world. And I'm astonished by the casual nature and the casual attitude that I find when I talk to them about these medications. ... And that has got to change."

The bill also gives medical professionals the authority to involuntarily commit someone for treatment for 72 hours if they pose an immediate danger, including to themselves.

Baker acknowledged that both points are "controversial" but he said there's a need to disrupt the "negative momentum" in the heroin epidemic that's gripped the state. More than 1,200 people died from overdoses in 2014, state officials have said.

The bill would also require every medical practitioner to check the state's prescription monitoring program before giving out a prescription. Marylou Sudders, the state's secretary of Health and Human Services, said the state is also in contract talks with a new vendor to revamp the monitoring program.

Other aspects of the bill include mandated training of parents, coaches and teachers at high schools about the danger of opioids -- a program Baker says that will be "baked in" to already mandated training on concussions. The legislation would also remove the provision allowing civil commitment of women to a Framingham prison for substance abuse treatment. The state, instead, plans to add up to 60 beds at Taunton State Hospital.