WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in Virginia’s General Assembly are churning out pieces of legislation aimed at addressing the worsening opioid crisis.
During subcommittee hearings Tuesday, state senators voted to move several bills forward. One was related to infants who are born addicted to opioids.
“It’s a big problem,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Ben Chafin. “People who are addicted to opioid drugs are sometimes not able to focus on their own health or the health of their unborn child.”
Under Chafin’s bill, Virginia’s health department would be the agency in charge of developing a program to help infants and pregnant women who are in that situation.
“The plan is to include a trauma-informed approach to identifying and treating substance-exposed infants,” Chafin said. “It’s a multidisciplinary approach.”
Another bill approved by lawmakers addressed the problem of people obtaining opioids by going to a veterinarian and asking for drugs to treat an injured animal.
The legislation would require tighter monitoring of veterinarians who dispense controlled substances. It would require veterinarians to request more information about the animal and the animal’s owner if the owner asks for an opioid prescription lasting more than seven days.
“We’re really glad to see movement and broad support for these initiatives,” Chafin said. “We carried opioid-oriented bills last year and probably we’ll be back with more next year.”
In Maryland, as lawmakers work on their own opioid legislation, Gov. Larry Hogan called for a related lawsuit.
In a news release, Hogan said he wants the state to sue opioid manufacturers.
But the governor’s claim that he “directed” Attorney General Brian Frosh to sue was greeted with some pushback from Frosh himself.
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Frosh said that “Governor Hogan often issues a news release saying he has ‘directed’ us to do something after we have asked for his approval. As he has done here.”
Frosh said that his Consumer Protection Division was already at work on efforts targeting opioid manufacturers.
Hogan’s announcement came on the same day that politicians in other jurisdictions across the country — from New York to Louisiana — announced that they too would be suing opioid manufacturers.
