On March 14, 2016, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a bill that offers long-awaited measures aimed at tackling the state’s growing opioid abuse crisis. After receiving House and Senate approval last week and spending seven weeks in conference committee negotiations, the bill will now become law. It includes restrictions on first-time opioid prescriptions, student and emergency room patient screenings, and a measure allowing partial-fill prescriptions.

Governor Baker has long prioritized opioid legislation, and had been pushing for an agreement before the legislature became overwhelmed with the budget this spring. The issue of opioid abuse is likely considered the number-one priority this year for the House, Senate and Governor’s office. While it is likely that every state in the U.S. has significant overdose cases and deaths, the perception, and perhaps the reality, is that Massachusetts has an abnormally high number of them. A recent HBO documentary that focused on heroin use on Cape Cod was heralded by the governor as a wake-up call to Massachusetts, and the desire and need to do something legislatively was clear. While the House and Senate took different approaches on some of the bill’s key provisions — like the number of hours that physicians can hold an overdose patient — there were no significant sticking points.