House attacks prescription narcotics abuse

HARTFORD – The House of Representatives took on the state’s prescription narcotics and heroin problem on Thursday, unanimously approving a law that would require pharmacists and doctors to pay closer attention to the state’s electronic drug-monitoring program.

The bill, which next heads to the Senate, would force practitioners who prescribe more than a 72-hour supply of controlled substances to check a patient’s profile on the state’s computerized monitoring system.

“In this country we have an epidemic going on,” said Rep. Theresa W. Conroy, D-Seymour, a nurse practitioner. “I don’t want to see one more person die from a heroin overdose. We need to stem this tide. We have our youth and our whole society at stake.”

Conroy acknowledged that when working correctly, the state’s drug-monitoring program alerts practitioners when patients are doctor shopping and apparently amassing quantities of narcotics such as Oxycodone.

She said that getting turned down for prescription drugs could push some people to buying heroin on the street, but it’s the price to pay for making it tougher to acquire prescription narcotics and force people into drug treatment.

For patients with longer-term prescriptions for painkillers, physicians, nurse practitioners, dentists, nurse-midwives, optometrists, physicians assistants, podiatrists, and veterinarians would have to review their patients’ cases every 90 days.

Under the legislation, pharmacists would also be trained and allowed to dispense Narcan, the trademark name for naloxone, an antidote for heroin overdoses.

Beginning in July 2016, pharmacists would have to immediately report prescriptions they fill to the monitoring program, rather than weekly.

“This has been a major policy initiative,” said Rep. Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, co-chairman of the legislative Public Health Committee, who brought the bill to the House floor. “We’re losing our young kids to serious, serious addictions. Drugs are literally killing people, killing young people in Connecticut. We lost someone within the time this bill was proposed and today.”

He credited Gov. Dannel P. Malloy with bringing the issue to the General Assembly and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to follow through on the bill.

Rep. Dan Carter, R-Bethel, said he was concerned that the legislation could cause a lot of added effort on the parts of average doctors’ offices, checking the monitoring program every time drugs are prescribed. He missed the 145-0 vote.

Currently about 50 percent of practitioners participate in the monitoring program. There are no penalties for non-compliance.

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