Pubdate: Thu, 10 Mar 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: David Scharfenberg
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

HOUSE BILL WOULD REQUIRE SCHOOLS TO SCREEN FOR DRUG USE

The Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously approved 
legislation Wednesday that would require schools to screen students 
for drug abuse and work to curb opioid use by limiting doctors' 
initial prescriptions to seven days.

The Senate is expected to approve the bill Thursday, and Governor 
Charlie Baker is expected to sign it.

The measure is the Legislature's latest response to an opioid crisis 
that claims about 100 Massachusetts lives per month.

It is not as far-reaching as a proposal Baker made last fall, which 
called for a three-day limit on initial opioid prescriptions. But the 
governor has praised the bill nonetheless.

Parents and students would have the ability to opt out of the drug 
abuse screenings, which would come in the form of confidential 
interviews with children in two still-to-be-determined grade levels.

The legislation also requires hospitals to perform a substance abuse 
evaluation, within 24 hours, on anyone who arrives at a hospital with 
signs of an overdose.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom