Governor Ordering Agencies To Implement Drug Abuse Task Force Recommendations

INDIANAPOLIS -- More than two weeks after the first meeting of the Gov. Mike Pence’s drug abuse task force, the governor is ordering state agencies to begin implementing some of the group’s initial recommendations.

One of the drug task force’s initial recommendations urged the state to seek broader Medicaid coverage for drug treatment. Pence is now directing the Family and Social Services Administration to determine the feasibility of that recommendation. 

He also wants state agencies to increase awareness of new legislation allowing people to obtain naloxone, an overdose intervention drug.  As State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams and DCS Director Mary Beth Bonaventura discussed at the task force meeting, the law hasn’t been utilized enough.

“Every 25 minutes someone’s dying from an overdose – we know that," Adams said. "And we now have a law to help us prevent some of those overdoses. But a lack of knowledge about that law is causing people to continue to die.” 

“Or the pharmacies not carrying the drug, even if you have knowledge,” Bonaventura.

The last recommendation Pence is implementing directs the Department of Workforce Development to identify best practices in youth assistance programs in the hopes they can be spread statewide.