AUGUSTA - On Tuesday, Rep. Lori Gramlich, D-Old Orchard Beach, will introduce a proposal to prevent overdose deaths by ensuring unused prescription medications are properly disposed of when an in-home hospice patient passes away.
"Because opioid medications are often used to manage pain for hospice patients, unused medications are frequently left behind when a patient passes away," said Gramlich. "But in most states, including Maine, hospice employees cannot or do not assist in the disposal of these medications. As a result, powerful prescription drugs are left in the hands of grieving family members or in medicine cabinets."
Gramlich's proposal is named for Trip Wilson, a South Portland teenager who died from an accidental overdose after discovering medication that had been prescribed to his late grandmother and was never properly and safely discarded.
WHO: Rep. Lori Gramlich, D-Old Orchard Beach, sponsor of measure to create Trips Law
WHAT: Public hearing on LD 330, An Act To Prevent Accidental Overdoses by Establishing a Protocol for Prescription Drug Recovery, before the Legislatures Health and Human Services Committee
WHERE: The public hearing can be streamed live on the Legislatures YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCocn7nfnQSB_XJ5F-x4m8ig
Those wishing to testify or submit written comment on the proposal can do so here: https://www.mainelegislature.org/testimony/WHEN: Tuesday, March 2, at 1 p.m.
Contact:
Jackie Merrill [Gramlich], c. 812-1111