Opioid-Related Legislation in Kentucky and West Virginia: Assessing Policy Impact

Abstract

Kentucky and West Virginia are among the states most severely affected by opioid poisonings and deaths. The legislatures of both states have enacted a broad range of bills intended to address related issues. We present an overview of legislation enacted in 2017 and 2018, along with an approach to analysis of practitioner response to one type of legislation.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

National Conference of State Legislatures, Prescribing Policies: States Confront Opioid Overdose Epidemic (April 2018), available at <http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/prescribing-policies-states-confront-opioid-overdose-epidemic.aspx> (last visited March 22, 2019); see statutes catalogues at Injury Prevention Database/Opioid Abuse Prevention, available at <http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/injury-prevention-legislation-database.aspx> (last visited March 22, 2019).

See, e.g., National Opinion Research Council, “Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States,” available at <https://opioidmisusetool.norc.org/> (last visited March 22, 2019).

National Center for Health Statistics, “Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts,” available at <https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm> (last visited March 22, 2019).

Dwyer-Lindgren

et al ., “Inequalities in Life Expectancy among U.S. Counties,” JAMA Internal Medicine 177, no. 7 (2018): 1003-1011.

A. M.

Parker ,

Strunk , and

D. A.

Fiellin , “State Responses to the Opioid Crisis,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 46, no. 2 (2018): 367-381.

See., e.g.,

Katz

, “Why a City at the Center of the Opioid Crisis Gave Up a Tool to Fight It,” New York Times, April 27, 2018, available at <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/27/upshot/charleston-opioid-crisis-needle-exchange.html> (last visited March 22, 2019).

K. K.

Gurka ,

Hu ,

H. I.

Linn ,

G. L.

Thompson , and

D. M.

Christy , “Changes in Drug-Related Fatal Overdoses Following Passage of Senate Bill 437 in West Virginia, 2001-2014: Heterogeneous Effects by Type and Combination of Opioids (abstract),” available at <https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/23/Suppl_1/A9.3> (last visited March 22, 2019).

Beletsky

, “Using Law to Address Addiction and its Consequences,” in Integrating Responses at the Intersection of Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Diseases Epidemics: A Workshop (National Academies Press, 2018): at 101.

A. S.

Bohnert ,

G. P.

Guy , and

J. L.

Losby , “Opioid Prescribing in the United States Before and After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2016 Opioid Guideline,” Annals of Internal Medicine 169 (2017): 367–375.

10.

Preliminary Data, Kentucky All-Schedule Prescription Electronic Registry, Office of Inspector General, Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, August 15, 2018.

11.

Hernandez ,

Meyers-Okhi , and

Farkas ,et al., “How Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York Are Taking Action to Address the Opioid Epidemic,” American Journal of Public Health 108, no. 12 (2018): 1621-1622.

12.

Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, “$1.3 Trillion Investor Coalition Probes Pharma on Opioid Accountability,” available at <https://www.iccr.org/13-trillion-investor-coalition-probes-pharma-opioid-accountability> (last visited March 22, 2019).

13.

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, “MDL 2804: National Prescription Opiate Litigation,” available at <http://www.ohnd.uscourts.gov/mdl-2804> (last visited March 22, 2019).

14.

United States Department of Justice, DOJ National Health Care Fraud Takedown Results in Charges Against 601 Individuals Responsible for Over $2 Billion in Fraud Losses: Largest Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action in Department of Justice History Resulted in 76 Doctors Charged and 84 Opioid Cases Involving More Than 13 Million Illegal Dosages of Opioids, Press Release 18-866, June 28, 2018, available at <https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/national-health-care-fraud-takedown-results-charges-against-601-individuals-responsible-over> (last visited March 22, 2019).

15.

Pitt ,

Humphreys , and

M. L.

Brandeau , “Modeling Health Benefits and Harms of Public Policy Responses to the US Opioid Epidemic,” American Journal of Public Health 108, no. 10 (2018): 1394-1400.