Downing, Pignatelli Bill on Drug Oversight Clears Senate

08:28PM / Wednesday, November 20, 2013Print Story | Email Story

BOSTON — Legislation by state Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, and state Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, D-Lenox, to create state regulatory oversight of the prescription drug Suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, has been unanimously passed by the Senate.

The bill is now pending with the House Committee on Steering, Policy and Scheduling and is being considered for debate by the full House of Representatives.

Prior to Tuesday's Senate action, S. 1926, An Act regulating the use of buprenorphine in opioid dependence treatment, had been reviewed and received favorable recommendations from the Joint Committees on Public Health, Health Care Financing and the Senate Committee on Ethics and Rules. It enjoys the support of the Department of Public Health and its implementation will have no cost to the commonwealth.

Buprenorphine, also known as "bupe," is a partial agonist synthetic opioid. Suboxone, a buprenorphine-based drug, is a unique compound used in treating opioid addiction, and has seen a rapid increase in use since its introduction to the market in 2002. Suboxone attaches to brain receptors better than traditional treatments like methadone without the risk of respiratory distress. Alarmingly, the potential for Suboxone abuse was detailed on the front page of the New York Times this weekend.

"Over the past decade the communities we live in have dealt with the scourge that is opiate addiction and abuse," said Downing. "One of the many ways to address opioid addiction is to treat it with Suboxone; however, we have seen this drug can be diverted and abused. This particular medication has caught the attention of public health and safety officials, in Berkshire County and beyond. This legislation seeks to increase state oversight of Suboxone by giving regulatory powers to the Department of Public Health."

Specifically, S. 1926 empowers the state Department of Public Health to promulgate rules relative to the treatment of opioid dependency through the prescription and use of buprenorphine and its variants. Through regulations DPH shall establish licensing and treatment requirements, such as toxicology screens of clients, medication call-backs, maximum take-home dosages and any other diversion control mechanism necessary to limit the diversion of buprenorphine-based medications.

"This bill is an important step in dealing with the abuse of prescription medication in the Berkshires and across the commonwealth," said Pignatelli. "I have recently met with the makers of Suboxone and plan on working with them in the future to take even more steps towards curbing this problem."

Downing and Pignatelli were inspired to file this legislation during a meeting with DPH officials in March 2012 on the subject of a proposed methadone clinic in the city of Pittsfield. During the conversation DPH officials lamented their lack of authority to implement commonsense regulations in this market.

Suboxone is an innovative tool in the fight against opioid addiction, yet the lack of state oversight has allowed diversion and abuse to become a major issue. Unlike methadone, which faces stringent regulations at both the state and federal levels, Suboxone can be prescribed by any primary care physician who registers with the DEA and completes one 8-hour online course. This ability to prescribe allows patients to access treatment without dealing with the perceived stigma of a methadone clinic setting.

In 2010, Vermont passed legislation to become the first state in the nation to regulate Suboxone.

Tags: legislation, opioids, prescription drugs,

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

05:24AM / Thursday, September 03, 2026

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River.

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said.

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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