Opioid bill passage provides a good start

AN attorney general’s commission on Oklahoma’s opioid crisis presented the Legislature with eight specific recommendations this year. One of them, to limit the number of pain pills prescribed, won unanimous approval in the Senate on Tuesday in an encouraging sign that lawmakers are taking this seriously.

Senate Bill 1446 by Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, would allow only a seven-day initial supply of opioid pain medication in most cases. It also would mandate that before doctors write a second weekly prescription, they determine it’s needed, and that there is no risk of abuse, addiction or diversion to another person.

Doctors would only be able to prescribe a week’s worth of pain medication until a third visit, when they would be allowed to prescribe opioids for three months at a time to manage chronic pain. The bill wisely includes exemptions for patients actively being treated for cancer or receiving hospice or palliative care.

Stories abound of patients being issued a month’s worth of opioids, or more, by their physicians after being treated. Having so many pills on hand increases the likelihood that a patient may become dependent on those highly addictive drugs, or help fuel the dependency of a family member or friend. SB 1446 is a common-sense attempt to reduce the chances of that happening.

Such efforts are badly needed. In its final report, issued in late January, the opioid commission noted that drug overdose deaths in Oklahoma had increased by 91 percent in the past 15 years. In 2016, there were 899 such deaths, an increase of 68 percent from a decade earlier.

Sen. Ervin Yen, R-Oklahoma City, an anesthesiologist, said SB 1446 may be the most significant bill this year to help mitigate the opioid crisis. Sykes said simply, “This legislation will save lives and prevent addiction.” The House should waste no time providing its approval.

The Legislature also should give every consideration to the commission’s other recommendations.

One is to criminalize the trafficking of fentanyl, a highly powerful synthetic opioid whose use has been spreading across the country. The commission also wants lawmakers to mandate that doctors use electronic prescriptions, which are more difficult to forge. The commission recommended that medical clinic owners be made to register with the state’s drug control agency.

Another worthwhile recommendation is creation of a “Good Samaritan” law, to provide immunity to those who call 911 to report a drug overdose. Presently, a person faces the possibility of being arrested on drug complaints when police arrive.

Oklahoma is one of just 13 states that doesn’t have such a law. Coincidentally, Sykes has seen to it that Oklahoma hasn’t joined the list of those that do. Last year and the year before, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sykes refused to allow a vote on the Good Samaritan measure. As bad, he killed it without explanation to the bill’s author or to reporters.

This needs to be the year the bill advances, as part of a broad legislative effort to curb Oklahoma’s devastating opioid problem.