Gov. Paul LePage’s administration announced Wednesday the introduction of new legislation to combat the over prescription of opiates. State leaders said over prescription is a major factor in the state’s heroin epidemic.

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Gov. Paul LePage’s administration announced Wednesday the introduction of new legislation to combat the over prescription of opiates. State leaders said over prescription is a major factor in the state’s heroin epidemic."We need to acknowledge that we are overprescribing opiates and that they are leading to a deadly addiction of heroin,” Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said. “These are common sense reforms.”In 2014, 300,000 Mainers received 80 million opiate pills, Mayhew said.The bill would require doctors to follow new rules and limit the number of pills prescribed.Part of the reforms include requiring prescribers check the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program to prevent duplicate prescriptions, require training in opioid prescription and require electronic submissions of opiate prescriptions beginning in 2018.The bill would also limit opioid prescriptions to 100 MME per day, and limit prescriptions for chronic pain to 15 days and acute pain to three days.According to a 2014 CDC report, Maine ranked first in long-term prescriptions per capita.State leaders said the pills are an easy gateway drug to heroin. The department estimated 75 percent of heroin users were either prescribed opiates or tried them first."They're very easy to become addicted to,” DHHS Chief Health Officer Dr. Chris Pezzullo said. “They couldn't access them enough or they wanted more and they started buying heroin on the street because it was an alternative."Adrienne Bennett, the governor’s press secretary, said the administration’s plan to battle the heroin epidemic has always been multi-fold."Unfortunately critics of the governor have a misconception that he only has one approach to this crisis and that's simply not true,” Bennett said."If it's going to help and resolve the crisis that we have -- we're all for it,” said House Speaker Mark Eves.Eves, a Democrat, said fighting Maine’s heroin epidemic is a bi-partisan issue."We all talk to the parents of kids who OD'd,” he said. “We need to figure this out as a state."Earlier this year, LePage signed a bi-partisan bill that allowed for the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to hire 10 more drug agents. The bill also funded more drug treatment programs.Bennett called that bill a first step.Several other heroin-related bills are working their way through the Statehouse, include one that would increase access to a drug that can prevent overdoses.This legislative session ends in April.Get the WMTW App