Gov. Baker: Massachusetts Should Be Model For Opioid Fight

BOSTON (CBS) -- Gov. Charlie Baker, who sits on the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, says he believes some of what Massachusetts has done to combat opioids should become the national model.

The commission was created in March, and the Governor says it has met several times.

Baker pointed to the state's prescription drug monitoring program as an example of a Massachusetts initiative that would work well nationwide.

"We doubled the number of inquiries on that prescription management program over the past year or so," he told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal. "And at the same time, the number of prescriptions that have been written in Massachusetts has actually gone down quite a bit. So I would like to see that kind of stuff become part of a national program."

He also pointed to the state requirement that state medical, nursing, and pharmacy students have to take a course in pain management to graduate.

"We basically worked out a deal with the medical schools, nursing schools, pharmacy schools, and dental schools here in Massachusetts where you can't graduate from any of them without passing a core curriculum in opioid therapy and pain management," Baker said. "I would love to see that become national policy."

The panel is due to make recommendations to the White House this fall--and Baker said he hopes the president listens.

"We're going to have to stick with this one and stay on it," he said.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports

• Charlie Baker
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