Overdose deaths remain high, as 2017 comes to a close and state lawmakers are looking to secure more resources for the crisis when they return to the State House in January.
A fund created in 2000 was meant to take a small portion of the state’s liquor sales and put it back towards addiction services. That program has only been fully-funded once. Lawmakers have tried each year to restore the funding without success and this year, they will try again.
Another bill seeks to take a chunk of the money seized from drug arrests and put it towards treatment and prevention rather than just law enforcement.
One bill that fell short last year will also be reintroduced this session. Itseeks to add illicit drugs and paraphernalia to prescription drug take back programs statewide.
And lawmakers will propose a measure requiring patients to learn about the addictive nature of opioids when the drugs are being prescribed.
