1 February 2019 — 1652 mst
HB-86 approved by MT House, but opposition
doubled from second to third readings
It’s an old script. Up for re-election, or running for a higher office, politicians, especially prosecutors, attorney generals, and county sheriffs, declare war on vices such as prostitution, vagrancy, drug addiction (which I consider a disease, not a vice), and panhandling.
That’s Montana Attorney General Tim Fox’s campaign script for his run for governor in 2020. His vice of choice? “Substance abuse,” a catch all term that includes drug addiction. His choice of tool to forge his reputation as a life saving crusader is House Bill 86, which would handcuff physicians by prohibiting them from writing first time prescriptions for acute pain for more than seven days for “opioid-naive” patients.
HB-86 is part of a nationwide outbreak of anti-painkiller legislation. Since 2016, bills of the HB-86 genre have been adopted by 33 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A similar bill, sponsored by Rep. Zach Brown, (D-Bozeman, HD-63)was defeated in the 2017 legislature.
Drug deaths, and opioid deaths, are down in Montana, but that did not deter HB-86 from being whooped through the human services committee 19–0 earlier this week. Yesterday, it was approved 87–12 on its second reading in the MT House. Today, it was approved 76–24 on its third reading and sent to the MT Senate, where with good fortune and common sense it can be killed. The names of the 24 legislators who defied Fox and succumbed to compassion for people in agony are below.
The seven-day limit ostensible rationale is to hardwire a CDC recommendation into Montana’s statutes. But although its supporters will deny it, they also hope the additional red tape, and increased scrutiny from the pill police, will intimidate physicians and discourage them from prescribing narcotics for pain relief. These people are so afraid of opioids they think screams of pain from others are an acceptable price for an aggressive campaign against drug abuse. Better that, they believe, than being considered soft on drugs.
Here are the names of the legislators voting against the bill. Once the issue is rejoined in the MT Senate, I’ll present more information on drugs and narcotics in Montana.
