Hours before Gov. Charlie Baker is scheduled to deliver a major address in which he will again focus on the opioid abuse crisis, state public health officials released updated numbers on the deadly toll that heroin and prescription painkiller addictions are inflicting in Massachusetts.
According to the Department of Public Health, confirmed cases of unintentional opioid overdose deaths for 2014 (1099) represents a 65 percent increase over 2012 (668) and a 21 percent increase over cases for 2013 (911). And preliminary data points to a higher number of overdose deaths during the first nine months of 2015 – a period when lawmakers have been debating what to do about the opioid crisis – than during the same nine-month period in 2015.
A House-Senate conference committee launched formal deliberations on Wednesday with the goal of presenting a consensus substance abuse bill to the Legislature reflecting priorities of both branches.
