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4/7/2021
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House approves Potter bill to continue reports on overdoses
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 STATE HOUSE – The House today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Brandon C. Potter to permanently require the state to analyze overdose deaths in the state to help identify ways to reduce their prevalence.
In response to the opioid overdose epidemic, in 2018 the state enacted a temporary requirement for the state Medical Examiners Office that a team of health and public safety professionals must review each overdose death in the state for the purpose of examining emerging trends in overdose, identifying potential demographic, geographic, and structural points for prevention and other factors.
The team provides an annual report to the governor and House and Senate leaders each December to help leaders respond to the crisis effectively. But the bill expired with the 2020 report.
Representative Potter’s legislation (2021-H 6014) removes the sunset provision to make the reports a permanent requirement.
“Drugs laced with fentanyl – and the greater isolation and lack of resources people have endured since the pandemic began – have fueled a surge in the overdose epidemic, killing more Rhode Islanders in 2020 than in any other year on record. We need every tool – especially information – available to us to identify ways we can address the problems, help people and prevent the tragedy of more lives lost to overdoses,” said Representative Potter (D-Dist. 16, Cranston). “We need to continue identifying the root causes behind overdoses in the state and using that information to put our resources toward prevention. As we’ve seen with the emergence of fentanyl in recent years, the trends in drug overdose deaths change over time, and our state must be able to identify shifts to effectively respond to them.”
The bill was requested by the Department of Health.
“In order to successfully address the worsening overdose crisis, and given the evolving nature of the epidemic including the impact of the COVlD-19 pandemic on overdose and overdose deaths, it is crucial to continue to identify and understand factors contributing to increasing number of deaths and changes in affected populations over time,” Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said in written testimony in support of the bill.
The Rhode Island Medical Society also testified in support of the bill.
“We commend and thank the sponsor Representative Potter for his initiative to ensure that the vital work of the office of the state Medical Examiner continues as the scourge of drug overdose deaths are increasing at an alarming rate,” said Rhode Island Medical Society President Dr. Catherine A. Cummings in her written testimony.
The bill is cosponsored by Rep. Justine A. Caldwell (D-Dist. 30, East Greenwich, West Greenwich), Rep. Jacquelyn Baginski (D-Dist. 17, Cranston), Rep. John G. Edwards (D-Dist. 70, Tiverton, Portsmouth), Rep. Rebecca Kislak (D-Dist. 4, Providence) and Rep. David Morales (D-Dist. 7, Providence).
The bill now heads to the Senate, where Senate Majority Whip Maryellen Goodwin (D-Dist. 1, Providence) is sponsoring its companion bill (2021-S 0713).
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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