Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction Releases Comprehensive Report and Recommendations

October 30th, 2018

Last Wednesday, the Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction released a report that “examines the current challenges facing individuals, institutions, and communities and provides 11 proposals to help end the state’s deadly epidemic.”

The report’s recommendations include:

• increasing resources to support the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals trained to treat substance use disorder;
• upgrading the I-STOP Prescription Monitoring Program to improve interstate monitoring of potential over-prescribing of opioids;
• maximizing federal funding to help support more children at the state’s newly-established Infant Recovery Centers;
• reducing the cost of naloxone to ensure greater access and enhancing public education and outreach on naloxone use and expiration to ensure effective treatment; and
• exploring the further limitation of initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain to three days from the current seven days, with certain medical exceptions.