House passed pain management bill

February 10th, 2010 by Niki Reading | Filed under Uncategorized.

The House just passed a bill aimed at reducing deaths from prescription drug overdose.

Rep. Bill Hinkle said the bill initially didn’t seem like a big deal — it requires health care boards to adopt pain management rules.

Rep. Jim Moeller, the bill’s sponsor, said he works as an addiction counselor for an HMO and has seen an increase in the past few years of overdoses of prescription opiates. He said many hospitals and organizations don’t have pain management rules — meaning there is no guidance for doctors about how much pain medicine to prescribe.

“There are 100 people in this state that get prescriptions for 6,000 milligrams a day,” Hinkle said — a fact he learned in committee. “To think of 6,000 mg of an opiate, that’s enough to put a horse to sleep.” He said that likely means people are not only liable to overdose, they may also be selling the drugs.

The bill passed unanimously.

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One Response to “House passed pain management bill”

  1. Sine Die so far: No word on special session, but interviews on public safety and more | 11/03/10

    [...] to address Washington’s high rate of opiate deaths. Currently, there are no standards and about 100 people are prescribed 6,000 mg of opiates a day. Share and [...]