Governor Mike Pence has acted on eight recommendations from the first two meetings of the drug abuse task force, drawing praise from state and federal officials. However, half of those actions largely rehash initiatives already in place.
Some of the directives Pence has issued include crafting substance abuse curriculum for children, developing guidelines for doctors prescribing acute pain medication and spreading successful youth assistance programs statewide.
But other actions include raising awareness of an already existing law allowing anyone to get an overdose prevention drug called Naloxone, simply speeding along creation of chronic pain prescribing rules, and looking (once again) at the state’s INSPECT system, a prescription monitoring program.
Pence says the actions taken so far are what was possible in such a short time.
“I have every confidence as we go forward that you’re going to see a broader range of recommendations produced from the drug task force,” he says.
Pence specifically notes that he will take a legislative proposal to the General Assembly to strengthen criminal penalties for drug dealers.
