Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Governor Charlie Baker cited a Sports Illustrated special report when he released the findings of his opioid working group at a press conference last month.
Facing an unprecedented crisis of opioid abuse, Governor Charlie Baker on Friday asked the Legislature for $27.8 million in extra state spending on treatment and prevention.
The money would pay for several recommendations made by Baker's Opioid Working Group, which he appointed in February after more than 1,000 people died of overdoses in 2014.
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If approved by the Legislature, the new expenditures would result in a 21 percent increase in spending on substance-abuse services in the fiscal year that started July 1.
More than half of the new money -- $14 million -- would boost the state's payments for residential substance abuse treatment.
An additional $5.8 million would end a practice that many advocates consider disturbing: Women civilly committed to addiction treatment are held among criminals at the state prison in Framingham. Now, they will be transferred to a state-run treatment program.
The budget includes $3.8 million for substance-abuse prevention programs in the schools.
The remainder of the new money would go toward increasing substance-abuse services for those covered by the state's MassHealth program for low-income people, as well as educational initiatives by the Department of Public Health.
The $28.7 million would technically be part of spending for the fiscal year that ended June 30, added through a supplemental budget that Baker filed Friday. But it will be spent in the current fiscal year.
The budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, which Baker signed Friday, includes $111 million for substance abuse services. If the $27.8 million supplemental budget is ultimately approved, state spending on this issue will be boosted significantly above the $114.6 million allotted last year.
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The budget includes a provision requiring pharmacists to report opioid prescriptions within 24 hours of filling them, instead of the current practice of taking up to seven days. This will address one of the complaints about the state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, the database that prescribers can check to see if patients are obtaining prescriptions from multiple sources. Doctors have said the database is not useful without more up-to-date information.
Other problems with the database, involving ease of use, are to HeroinDrug Detox in Michigan be addressed when the state hires a vendor to revamp the system.
The budget bill signed Friday also established a $100,000 Municipal Naloxone Trust Fund, to make it easier for cities and towns to supply emergency workers with the drug that reverses opioid overdoses, widely known by the commercial name Narcan. Under the plan, the state will use money from the trust fund to buy naloxone at a discount, and cities and towns will pay back the fund when they acquire the drugs.
Felice J. Freyer can be reached at felice.freyer@globe.com.
Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that the $27.8 million spending plan still requires legislative approval. An earlier version stated incorrectly that Baker had signed the supplemental budget.
