SB 482

I just talked to Bob Pack, who learned that the Governor has signed into law legislation requiring that doctors check an existing prescription database before prescribing narcotics to patients for the first time.
 
The new law would have prevented the deaths of his young children, Troy and Alana, who were run over on a roadside twelve years ago by an addict with multiple prescriptions who fell asleep at the wheel.  
 

The California Medical Association should get over its reactionary opposition to reform that would curb the prescription opioid and heroin overdose epidemic.

Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new painkiller prescription guidelines recommending that doctors check state prescription drug databases before prescribing opioids to a patient. This simple tool has been proven to reduce overprescribing, but only when doctors are required to use it.

The prescription drug abuse epidemic has vaulted into the national presidential debate, most recently this week with a Hillary Clinton op-ed in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Clinton wrote about combating addiction, and called for a requirement that health care providers consult a prescription drug monitoring database before prescribing controlled substances.