Legislators pass comprehensive bill for tracking opioid scripts
Prescription opioids are the driving force behind the current wave of overdoses, and officials are finally enacting stricter oversight on prescription habits.
The Detroit News is reporting that in Michicgan, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley signed a 10-bill package aimed at reducing the state’s rapidly growing opioid addiction by requiring doctors and the state to better track and control the flow of opioid-based prescription drugs.
Calley signed six bills that will collectively require doctors to use a new online prescription tracking state database, set up a legitimate doctor-patient relationship and limit the number of pills dispensed in a given seven-day period. It comes as the number of heroin and prescription opioid overdose deaths in Michigan has doubled during the past five years.
“This will make a huge difference. It’s about earlier detection and prevention,” Calley said about the legislation.
“We’ve done a lot of great work to try and save lives after a person becomes addicted,” said the lieutenant governor, who chairs Gov. Rick Snyder’s task force on opioids. “What we’re doing now is the work to prevent the addiction from happening in the first place and to detect it earlier in the process and get ahead of this epidemic.”
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To learn more about how Michigan is addressing the spread of prescription opioids, please visit the Detroit News.