State Assembly health committee approves anti-heroin bills

 

MADISON — The state Assembly health committee has signed off on a package of legislation designed to combat heroin use.

The package includes bills that would require opiate dispensers to enter prescriptions in a statewide database within 24 hours; require police who find an opiate prescription at an overdose scene to enter it in the database; create methadone and pain clinic registries; and require treatment programs that use methadone to report the number of people receiving the medication.

The health committee approved all four bills on unanimous votes.

The panel also unanimously approved a bill that clarifies a 2013 state law that permits pharmacists to dispense the overdose antidote Narcan to people without specific prescriptions.

Committee approval clears the way for full votes in the Assembly.