Fighting the Opioid Epidemic
The Indiana General Assembly continues to fight the opioid epidemic facing our state using a three-pronged approach – prevention, treatment and enforcement. Below are some of the bills brought forth this session to help put an end to drug abuse in our state.
Prevention
To help prevent current and potential opioid abusers from obtaining more prescription drugs, Senate Bill 221 would require doctors to check INSPECT, Indiana’s prescription monitoring database, prior to issuing opioid prescriptions.
Treatment
To ensure opioid abusers have access to the treatment they need, House Bill 1007 would allow the Division of Mental Health and Addiction to approve nine additional opioid treatment programs, which would be operated by hospitals. By expanding these programs, all Hoosiers would be within a one-hour drive from a treatment program.
Enforcement
To increase penalties for those feeding addiction, House Bill 1359, which is a part of Gov. Holcomb’s legislative agenda, would increase criminal penalties for drug dealers if a sale leads to a fatal overdose.
If signed into law, I hope these bills will help curb the drug abuse problem in our communities and state.
Apparently our legislators in Indianapolis are going to follow other legislators and what has – for the most part – been done for nearly 50 yrs.. They keep digging the “hole” and never have figured out that are actually digging one.. and until they figure that out and STOP DIGGING… things are not going to change. IMO.. as long as law enforcement is part of the solution… there will never be a solution… because collectively our judicial system has a 81 billion/yr industrial complex – the war on drugs – that employs some 500,000 to ONE MILLION people, and our judicial system is never going to let that go…
Filed under: General Problems
This is MY STATE. I can’t let this happen! Okay. I have a BIG mouth. On my way to the airport to fly to Orlando, I printed off the application to get relicensed (as I’ve said, my 7 grandkids are now old enough for me to return to work) & was getting ANGRY with all the restrictions we have ALREADY. I KNEW there was a reason I didn’t go down to the pool today. Well, I have to have some fun while I’m here, but there a reason for me to not return for a longer vacation this year.