McGorty: We Must Cap Opioid Prescriptions
A bipartisan assembly of members of the legislature’s Public Health Committee today issued a call for a cap on the limit of prescription opioids to a seven-day supply. State Representative Ben McGorty (R-122) joined that call, saying it is an essential step in combating the state’s increasing opioid addiction crisis. The committee is advancing SB 352, An Act Concerning Prescriptions for and the Dispensing of Opioid Antagonists and Opioid Drugs to accomplish that.
McGorty joined other regional legislators, state and local officials and public health professionals in holding an opioid addiction forum on March 3rd. The forum, held at Scinto Auditorium in Shelton, was attended by a standing-room-only crowd of over 200 people, attesting to the significance of the crisis, and the tender nerve it touches in the region.
“One thing that seems clear from what we have learned about opioid abuse is that abuse of opioid prescription drugs frequently leads to a heroin habit for the abuser,” said Rep. McGorty. “The problem of opioid abuse does not have one solution, but limiting the number of unused opioid painkillers that are available for abuse such as this proposal is one of many things we can do to in that effort.”
Current law requires that opioids prescribed by physicians for patients be capped at thirty-day supplies. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released recommendations last week concerning the prescription of opioid painkillers, calling on doctors to use non-opioids when possible, and to limit opioid prescriptions they do issue to seven-day supplies.
McGorty said that recent data from the Office of the chief Medical Examiner has established that there is a substantial increase in the number of overdose deaths related to opioids and heroin in Connecticut. From 2014-2015, heroin deaths have increased 27%.
The bill remains before the Public Health Committee and awaits action there. This session of the Connecticut General Assembly adjourns on May 4th.