Progress on the Fight Against Opioids
Hogan-Rutherford Administration Declared a State of Emergency on March 17th, and Announced Major Funding to Combat Heroin and Opioid Crisis in Maryland
In response to 2,000 lives lost last year due to the heroin, opioid, and fentanyl crisis ravaging communities in Maryland, this declaration activated the governor's emergency management authority and enabled increased and more rapid coordination between the state and local jurisdictions. Governor Hogan, along with Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford, also announced $50 million in new funding to address the crisis. Rising addiction to prescription opioids is driving a more than five-year surge in overdose deaths.
Education and treatment are at the heart of opioid-epidemic legislation we worked on all session in the Health & Government Operations Committee where I serve. We worked with the Administration on a comprehensive package of new legislation including:
HB 1432-Prescription Opioids - Limits on Prescribing
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Requires a health care provider to prescribe the lowest effective dose.
HB 1329- Heroin and Opioid Prevention Effort (HOPE) and Treatment Act of 2017
Establishes crisis treatment centers and a toll-free health crisis hotline 24/7 for individuals experiencing a substance
use disorder crisis. Requires hospitals to have a protocol for discharging patients treated for a drug overdose and expands drug court programs.
HB 1082-Start Talking Maryland Act
Will require drug education programs to talk about the lethality of the opioid fentanyl and would teach medical providers about drug addiction treatment, expand existing programs that provide drug addiction and prevention education in the public schools and require each public school to store overdose-reversing medication for use in emergencies. Also provides for coordination with local schools, health departments and law enforcement to partner with and involve communities and parents in fighting the opioid epidemic.
Controversial Bills Defeated
Defeated Legislation That Would Have Made Maryland a Sanctuary State
In what I consider to be the worst bill to have passed the House this session,
HB 1362 was an irresponsible piece of legislation called "The Maryland Trust Act".
This law would have directly interfered with the ability of state and local law enforcement to work and cooperate with federal law enforcement authorities on illegal immigration and would have made Maryland a Sanctuary State.
Despite the early passage in the House of this ill-conceived legislation, national media attention led to outrage from the citizens of Maryland. Thanks to all of you who called in or signed petitions expressing your concerns to the Senate Majority leadership. They listened!
End of Life Options Act (HB 370)
- was withdrawn by the sponsor for a lack of support. I opposed this legislation that sought to legalize physician-assisted suicide. For the third year in a row, this bill never made it out of my committee- Health and Government Operations.
Supporters of this legislation argue that it would create a dignified death with people suffering from a terminal condition with less than six months to live. This argument overlooks a critical fact: Maryland residents already have near universal access to hospice and palliative care that can provide a pain-free, dignified end of life.
"Death with dignity" legislation is dangerous with a lack of safeguards to prevent coercion and abuse of Maryland's most vulnerable patients such as the disabled, poor, and minorities.
Even the supporters of the concept believe that there are flaws in the legislation. "Death with dignity" prescriptions are given to patients at their local pharmacy, the patient must self-administer the lethal drugs without any health care providers present, and there is no requirement to tell family members ahead of time.
