WA bills fight opioid addiction by treating it as medical condition

opioid-addiction

Washington lawmakers are considering legislation requested by Governor Jay Inslee to fight opioid addiction by treating it as a medical condition rather than a choice.

Two companion bills – one each in the House and Senate – would create four new networks to connect communities and providers to a “hub” that provides medication-assisted drug treatment. The measures include an array of other initiatives, such as making the overdose-reversal drug naloxone widely available to anyone regardless whether they have a prescription, and expanding the state’s opioid prescription monitoring program beyond emergency rooms.

The bills would require the Department of Social and Health Services to promote medication-assisted treatment such as methadone at all state-certified opioid treatment centers, and would implement a first-in-the-nation initiative to provide medication-assisted treatment to offenders in jail.

The governor’s supplemental budget earmarks $8.9 million a year to implement the program, with an additional $1.7 million coming from marijuana taxes.

The House bill had bipartisan support and was voted out of the Appropriations Committee unanimously on Friday.

The measures also would remove language from state law that suggests people with opioid-use disorder should use other alternative treatments like abstinence from drugs before seeking medication-assisted treatment.

Opioids are now the leading cause of accidental deaths in the state, according to the Department of Social and Health Services. In 2016, some 694 opioid-related deaths occurred in Washington. (Seattle Times)

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