Gov. Dannel P. Malloy marked International Overdose Awareness Day Thursday by holding a ceremonial bill signing in Hartford to highlight legislation to help battle the opioid crisis.
Signed into law this year, Public Act 17-131 seeks to deter opioid abuse. Some of its provisions include increasing data sharing between state agencies regarding opioid abuse and opioid overdose deaths, and boosting the security of controlled substances prescriptions by requiring certain scheduled drugs to be electronically prescribed.
The Connecticut Office of the State Medical Examiner says the total number of accidental drug deaths in the state is on pace to be higher this year, and could increase by as much as 18 percent, to 1,078 accidental deaths by year’s end.
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The Connecticut State Police are reporting that since state troopers completed training in 2014 providing them with the skills needed to administer naloxone, they have saved more than 184 people who were experiencing overdoses with the medication, Malloy said in a statement.
Malloy called the opioid crisis a complex dilemma “that does not have one root cause, nor does it have simple solution, but we need to do everything in our power to treat and prevent it.”
