Scott Signs Bill Targeting Opiod Addiction

March 20, 2018

Saying it is critical to “stop the addiction in the beginning,” Gov. Rick Scott on Monday signed a high-profile bill designed to prevent patients from getting hooked on powerful opioids.

Flanked by House leaders and law-enforcement officers at the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Scott approved the measure as the state continues grappling with drug overdoses that have surged in recent years. The bill is designed, at least in part, to prevent patients from getting addicted to prescription painkillers and then turning to street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl.

“I’ve met a lot of families all across the state who are dealing with drug abuse,” said Scott, who declared a public-health emergency last year because of the opioid issue. “I have a family member that’s dealt with both alcoholism and drug abuse, and I can tell you it’s very difficult for a family.”

Lawmakers unanimously passed the bill (HB 21) on March 9, the final full day of the annual legislative session.

Perhaps the highest-profile part of the bill would place limits on prescriptions that doctors can write for treatment of acute pain. Doctors in many cases would be limited to writing prescriptions for three-day supplies, though they could prescribe up to seven-day supplies of controlled substances if “medically necessary.” Cancer patients, people who are terminally ill, palliative care patients and those who suffer from major trauma would be exempt from the limits.

Some physicians objected during the legislative session to such limits. But House Speaker Richard Corcoran, a Land O’ Lakes Republican who took part in Monday’s bill-signing event, defended the approach.

“It (the bill) also says no longer will we prescribe just blanketly 30-day prescriptions. Now we’ll say it’s a three-day prescription, and then you have to come back and warrant (it),” Corcoran said. “Is that an inconvenience? Yes. Is an inconvenience worth saving 50,000 lives nationwide? Absolutely.”

Another high-profile part of the bill will require physicians or their staff members to check with a statewide database before prescribing or dispensing controlled substances. In the past, Florida has not required physicians to use the database, known as the prescription drug monitoring program. The goal of the database is to prevent addicts from visiting multiple doctors or pharmacies to get supplies of drugs.

Opioids have caused thousands of deaths in Florida in recent years. In 2016, for example, fentanyl caused 1,390 deaths, heroin caused 952 deaths, oxycodone caused 723 deaths, and hydrocodone caused 245 deaths, according to a House staff analysis.

House Commerce Chairman Jim Boyd, a Bradenton Republican who sponsored the bill, described it as “another step to curbing this epidemic.”

“I grew passionate about this a couple of years ago because I just saw what it was doing,” Boyd said during the bill-signing event at the sheriff’s office. “There’s not a person in this room who doesn’t have a family member or a friend of a family that hasn’t been affected by this epidemic.”

by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida

Comments

7 Responses to “Scott Signs Bill Targeting Opiod Addiction”

  1. Anne on March 21st, 2018 5:19 pm

    Anyone else feel that OUR state legislators and their office personnel should have mandatory drug and alcohol and tobacco testing that would become immediately Publicly Noticed Information?

  2. Makarizo Sanchez on March 21st, 2018 9:36 am

    Restricting alcohol worked really well. Let’s see how tighter controls helps illegal drugs flourish. The sad part is there are people in chronic pain. The people who are struggling always have to suffer even more for the stupid who commit suicide by overdose. Any time someone tells me the government cares about me I laugh and think what’s the real motive (votes, money etc).

  3. Citizen on March 21st, 2018 2:13 am

    yeah pretty stupid, they will just take heroin but as we approach our later years will probably have to jump through endless hoops to get help as our old bodies fall apart.

  4. Nod on March 20th, 2018 3:59 pm

    Yes lets make the working nondoper pay for the dopers. Why is it always the good innocent people that must pay for the bad. I agree with what president Trump is thinking about with the drug pushers. Maybe it will help cure this horrible disease.
    That is what we want, a cure

  5. Karma on March 20th, 2018 3:05 pm

    I have no sympathy for drug addicts anymore. All the money and time spent is a waste they will only stop when ready. Maybe they want everyone to go get their government medical cannabis. Think about that who do you trust more to get that from your local weed man or your government weed man. Ever wonder why Florida doesn’t allow the patient to grow a few plants on their own instead of going to their stores. I can’t wait to see the mess this makes. Now heroin is on the way.

  6. Lance on March 20th, 2018 9:13 am

    Trying to legislate addiction: Genius. What about the 88K alcohol related deaths each year?

  7. Grand Locust on March 20th, 2018 5:06 am

    “Is that an inconvenience? Yes. Is an inconvenience worth saving 50,000 lives nationwide? Absolutely.”

    I love the naive world of politicians. My terminal cancer is exempted, but when I had kidney stones would not be exempted. Just to help some folks who like being in front of the cameras……Heroin is an opium based street drug which is killing people and exactly how is this bill creating an inconvenience for dope dealers and mopes who are hooked on opiates…….it is not, but doctors and American citizens…..yep, that is the answer…..more calls and load on docs, and folks in pain……..a marriage made in Tallahassee. One more example of flim flam as if the politicians are selling miracle water and sprinkling the same on heroin addicts is going to solve the problem and save fifty thousand lives……one more governmental intrusion in people’s health care and lives. Instead of focusing on those doctors and patients who were abusing prescriptions, now everyone must bear the pain because of a few who actually believe this bill is going to save lives.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News