Gov. Henry McMaster announced an executive order and state of emergency ‘silent hurricane’ on the opioid crisis in South Carolina
Calling it a “Silent Hurricane,” Gov. Henry McMaster announced an executive order and state of emergency on the opioid crisis in South Carolina.
The Opioid Epidemic Order
The order brings together most of the top agencies in the state of S.C., including the South Carolina Emergency Management Division, Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, S.C. National Guard and many others to try to combat the Opioid Crisis in a unified fashion.
- Limiting Opioid prescriptions with acute and post-operative pain to a maximum of 5 days for the state medicare recipients in that system.
- The state public employee benefit authority has agreed to similar limits for participants in the state health plans
All of this is to prevent further opioid deaths in South Carolina which has spiked 21% between 2014 and 2016. Of those deaths, 67 percent were caused by heroin overdoses.
McMaster stated in the order, combating the opioid emergency response team in South Carolina is now an “All hands on deck” issue. The order will combat opioid deaths and opioid abuse. As part of this mandate, the order will limit opioid prescriptions. There have been more than 4,000 law enforcement who have administered antidote OD drug to victims in South Carolina, DAODAS says, but more is being done.
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