Ohio’s New Opioid Abuse Prevention Law

(Spring 2017) The Buckeye State’s governor, John Kasich, recently approved legislation strengthening restraints on doctor-prescribed opioids and opening doors for easier addiction treatment. Kasich spoke highly of the bill as a means of further battling the coast-to-coast opioid abuse crisis, in which Ohio sadly leads the country in overdose fatalities. The governor hopes to rally community groups such as schools, churches and civic associations to use tools provided by the state to help combat the issue.

Among other mandates, the newly-approved Senate Bill 319

• Requires centers administering the opioid-addiction treatment drug Suboxone® to be state-licensed.
• Permits the establishment of for-profit methadone clinics and strikes down the condition that providers be licensed in Ohio for two years prior to operating such a clinic.
• Approves halfway houses, homeless shelters, treatment facilities, schools and other centers frequently working with high-risk individuals to house the life-saving opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone.
• Removes the state law exemption that permitted sole-proprietor health care professionals such as dentists, doctors and veterinarians to dispense controlled drugs to patients without the Ohio Board of Pharmacy’s management.
• Restricts the number of opiate doses that can be distributed from one prescription to a three-month supply and voids opiate prescriptions not used after one month.
• Affords civil immunity to first responders and others authorized to administer naloxone.

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