NEWS BRIEFS
NEWS Briefs
KENTUCKY OKs NATION’S TOUGHEST LIMITS ON PAIN PILLS The number of drug-overdose deaths in Kentucky has climbed the past four years, culminating in an all-time high of 1,404 in 2016, reports the Tribune News Service. It is hoped that a new law restricting opioid prescriptions will reverse the trend. By placing a three-day limit on opioid prescriptions for acute pain, such as removal of wisdom teeth, lawmakers hope House Bill 333 will hit the opioid epidemic where it often starts— prescriptions from well-intending physicians. A 2013 study found that 80 percent of heroin users reported using prescription opioids before heroin. “The elephant in the room is that we have mistreated pain for years,” said Dr. Ryan Stanton, a physician in Central Baptist Hospital’s emergency department. “We have used opioids as the ‘easy button’ when there are better, less addictive options on most pain-related conditions. We have to be supported to go with the evidence and research like we would in almost every other facet of health care.” While the law officially goes into effect, along with dozens of other laws approved by the General Assembly earlier this year, doctors won’t have to abide by the new standard immediately. First, the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure must develop regulations to implement the rule, a process that includes a public hearing. Kentucky is one of several states that recently limited the amount of painkillers physicians can prescribe for acute pain, but the Bluegrass State’s three-day limit is the tightest in the nation, said Van Ingram, director of the Office of Drug Control Policy.
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PUBLIC RISK | AUGUST 2017
Ingram said Kentucky’s new rule is based on prescribing guidelines suggested by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “For an overwhelming majority of acute situations, three days will be enough,” he said. When it’s not enough, Ingram said, there will be built-in exceptions to the rule allowing a doctor to increase the prescription. Opioid prescriptions in Kentucky went down 11 percent between 2013 and 2015, according to the Pew Research Center, though doctors still prescribed more than 10.6 million controlled
substances between June 2015 and July 2016, according to the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy’s 2016 report. Medical experts say that while limiting prescriptions can help prevent future drug abuse, it does little to help people who are struggling with addiction. The law’s sponsor, Rep. Kimberly Moser, R-Taylor Mill, had a second bill that focused on recovery and treatment for addicts, but it failed to pass the Senate on the final day of this year’s legislative session.