Statement Following Meeting Of The Opioid Task Force

The following is a statement from Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan following today's public listening session by the Opioid Abuse Task Force at the State House, Boston:

“I applaud the efforts of the Commonwealth’s working group and am encouraged at the priority being placed state-wide in combatting the alarming opiate epidemic.

We know the lives of individuals and families are being devastated by the alarming increase in addictions.

In Middlesex County, we are addressing the epidemic from many directions. When the increase in overdose deaths became dramatic in 2012, I founded an Opiate Task Force with State Senator Eileen Donoghue. Our Task Force has met monthly to share information and launch initiatives for treatment, prevention, and education.

Keeping people from getting addicted from opiates in the first place is a necessary step.

I encourage legislators to support a bill I collaborated on with State Representative Chris Walsh for this session. If approved, it would prohibit emergency room professionals from prescribing doses of opiates beyond what is medically necessary for a 72 hour period.

Other initiatives I have launched have already been successful, including, training first responders on how to use Narcan to save the lives of overdose victims, establishing a drug court to get addicts into treatment, and providing communities with prescription drug collection boxes so that unused medicine is safely discarded.

I encourage other counties to follow our lead. The key to addressing this urgent problem is collaboration and sharing ‘best practices.’”