Amid tears, Gov. Charlie Baker signs
landmark opioid bill into law
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/amid_tears_gov_charlie_baker_s.html
I wonder if Gov Baker will shed any tears as those in chronic pain start getting denied their medically necessary medications and start committing suicides ? Trying to save the few from themselves while leaving the many to fend for themselves ?
BOSTON – After signing into law a comprehensive bill aimed at addressing opioid addiction, Gov. Charlie Baker broke down in tears Monday as he recalled the stories he has heard from people struggling with drug addiction.
A huge crowd of lawmakers, law enforcement officials and families began to clap, giving Baker, at the podium, a chance to compose himself. “May today’s bill passage signal to you that the commonwealth is listening, and we will keep fighting for all of you,” Baker said.
Lawmakers and Baker have been discussing and debating parts of the bill since last fall, and the final version passed the Legislature last week. The new law contains a wide range of provisions aimed at preventing addiction and educating students and doctors.
The law limits first-time prescriptions for opioid drugs — such as those prescribed as painkillers after surgery — to a seven-day supply, with exceptions for treating cancer or chronic pain. The law establishes a process for schools to verbally screen students to identify those at risk of drug addiction. It requires that a mental health professional provide a substance abuse evaluation to anyone who enters the emergency room suffering from an opioid overdose within 24 hours, and it allows patients to fill a lesser amount of an opioid prescription.
The law requires doctors to check a state Prescription Monitoring Program each time they prescribe an addictive opioid, to prevent someone from getting prescriptions from multiple doctors; establishes civil liability for anyone administering the anti-overdose drug naloxone; incorporates education about opioid addiction into high school sports training; and establishes a drug stewardship program to dispose of unneeded drugs.
WMass law enforcement, medical personnel hail new law limiting opioid prescriptions
Sheriff Michael Ashe, Dr. Robert Roose, DAs Anthony Gulluni and David Sullivan were among those who hailed an opioid addiction law signed by Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday as a “game changer” and a landmark piece of legislation.
Most provisions of the bill go into effect immediately, including the prescription limit. The emergency room assessments will begin this summer, and the requirement for doctors to check the Prescription Monitoring Program will be effective in October.
Senate President Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, called the bill “a landmark piece of legislation.”
“We will not see a more comprehensive, thoughtful, game changing piece of legislation in this entire country.”
Attorney General Maura Healey, who also choked up as she spoke, said: “We have not seen, and we will not see a more comprehensive, thoughtful, game-changing piece of legislation in this entire country.”
Janis McGrory of Harwich, whose 23-year-old daughter Liz LeFort died of a heroin overdose five years ago, said she came to the bill signing as a representative of the thousands of families who lost have loved ones to substance abuse. According to state statistics, an average of four people a day die of unintentional drug overdoses in Massachusetts.
McGrory said her daughter was tenth in her class, a member of the National Honor Society in high school and an athlete. She started taking pills and became a heroin addict, spending years going in and out of detoxification programs, hospitals, jail and homelessness.
“She once said to me, ‘Mom. I wish I had never taken that first pill. I would rather have cancer,'” McGrory said.
Julia Durbeck, 18, a senior at North Shore Recovery High School, came to the bill signing with her teachers and classmates. Students at the school wrote letters to Baker about their experiences.
Durbeck started using opioids this summer while dating a drug user. She failed her classes at Andover public schools and went through several attempts at rehabilitation and detoxification before ending up at the high school, which helps recovering addicts.
“I feel really honored to have been able to share my story and have the governor of Massachusetts read it,” Durbeck said. “The fact that I’m here is a blessing.”
Filed under: General Problems
The legislation is directed at reducing addiction. But, it does not address the needs of the chronic pain patient. The high percentage of people with chronic pain is being shoved under the bus because of the idiotic politicians that see the much lower percentage of drug addicts. They weep about the drug overdose young addict. But, what about the 60 year old chronic pain patient that cannot get a days peace without his pain meds. Is it better to have intolerable pain and commit suicide, or be a drug addict and commit suicide? I am a pharmacist and I had one patient that was in severe chronic pain. You could easily see that his life was miserable. He kept having all sorts of problems, every time he came to the pharmacy to get pain meds. He committed suicide. There is no other way to put it: it is INHUMANE to deny chronic pain patients there medication. We don’t even treat our pets that bad.
I am so glad the addicts that caused all of this are so taken care of and as usual the pain patients just get handed a rope Too bad they don’t care about the pain patients maybe enough haven’t died to fit in for alligator tears but no worries their will be they should be so proud.
Might just as well charge the entire Commonwealth body of public officials with Genocide. There is nothing thoughtful about this statute. Addiction is a disease and addicts have every right to seek help for it, from any person willing or able to provide that help. Addiction is not a crime and it is entirely the Massachusetts legal system’s fault, that addicts are dying of the inability to spend their own money on their own drugs. Of course the legislative chambers were awash in alligator tears today. All those corrupt public officials are crying all the way to the bank, with the cash windfall they will make, when welfare recipients and pain patients commit mass suicide and stop consuming the public benefits for which they paid taxes, back when they were working.
The TRUE 1 PERCENT ARE THE POLITICAL CLASS.
We, as a people, are not just battling for our own needs, but for the people with addiction too, so that their needs are met also. It’s the only human and kind thing to do. I just wish the two subjects, i.e. addiction and the need for pain meds for us, could have separate identities so that both battles are heard and publicized and dealt with fairly.
Law of unintended consequences.
Again.
Yet again.
Yes Mark for sure!