Gov. Paul LePage’s administration announced Wednesday the introduction of new legislation to combat the over prescription of opiates. State leaders said over prescription is a major factor in the state’s heroin epidemic.
“We need to acknowledge that we are overprescribing opiates and that they are leading to a deadly addiction of heroin,” Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said. “These are common sense reforms.”
In 2014, 300,000 Mainers received 80 million opiate pills, Mayhew said.
