Connecticut governor signs legislation targeting opioid epidemic News
Connecticut governor signs legislation targeting opioid epidemic

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy [official website] signed [press release] a bill into law on Friday which takes aim at the state’s ongoing opioid epidemic. Calling the widespread epidemic “a complex crisis that does not have one root cause, nor… a simple solution,” Mallow had initially introduced [press release] the legislation, now codified as Public Act 17-131 [text, PDF], in January. After months of debate and amendment, the state House of Representatives [official website] unanimously passed [vote count] the legislation on May 31, and the Senate [official website] did the same [vote count] a week later. The governor says that the new law, among other things, will increase data sharing among state agencies regarding opioid abuse, facilitate the destruction of unused medicine, require electronic prescriptions, allow patients to voluntarily indicate that they do not want to be prescribed opioids, and reduce the length of opioid prescriptions to minors from seven days to five days. Lt. Governor Nancy Wyman says the new law will help “curb the opioid epidemic – and prevent new victims.” Wyman added:

It is part of a bigger strategy to address addiction and recovery so our residents can live healthier, more productive lives. I applaud the Governor and the legislature for their commitment to a healthier state.

The opioid crisis has risen to the level of a national epidemic in recent years, in turn eliciting a variety of responses from different authorities across the nation. Last week, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against three of the largest opioid manufacturers, Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and units of Endo International Plc. [corporate websites], accusing them of violating consumer protection laws by deliberately and carefully crafting a “campaign of deception.” Two weeks ago a bipartisan group of state attorneys general from Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas announced joint investigations [JURIST report] into the marketing and sales practices of the manufacturers of opioid painkillers. In March President Donald Trump [official profile] signed an executive order [JURIST report] establishing a task force to combat the opioid crisis. This would not be the first time that opioid drug manufacturers have found themselves in trouble with the law. In July 2007 the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia sentenced [NYT report] three former executives of the Purdue Frederick Company, manufacturer of painkiller OxyContin [FDA materials], to three years of probation and 400 hours of community service in drug treatment programs. The three executives, including former president Michael Friedman, former chief in-house counsel Howard Udell, and former medical director Paul Goldenheim, all pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in May 2007 to a misdemeanor offense of misbranding a drug. Prosecutors had alleged that the company and executives were aware in 1995 that doctors were concerned about the drug’s high addiction risk, but its sales representatives continued to misrepresent OxyContin’s effects to physicians. Purdue Frederick agreed to pay $634.5 million in fines for its role in misleading the public.