Like Massachusetts, Rhode Island is struggling to cope with a sharp increase in overdose deaths. But, unlike Massachusetts, Rhode Island appears to know far more about what it’s up against because the state does a much better job tracking overdose deaths.
The absence of good, current data in Massachusetts was first raised by Steve Koczela of the MassINC Polling Group, who questioned how state officials can declare a public health emergency without up-to-date information on the problem. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has data on opioid-related overdose deaths only through 2012. For more recent information, the agency refers questions to the State Police, who reported 185 heroin-related deaths between November 2013 and March 2014, but that number does not include deaths in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, the state’s three largest cities. There are also no corresponding data for the same period in 2012-2013.
Judging from a recent series of articles and graphics in the Providence Journal, Rhode Island appears to have in-depth knowledge about its drug problem. The Department of Public Health there has data on overdose deaths through 2013 and is even tracking deaths on a week-by-week basis in 2014, according to stories in the series.
The more comprehensive data allow everyone to understand the problem better and deal with it. One graphic in the ProJo series, for example, draws a connection between a leveling-off in the number of prescriptions issued for controlled substances and the recent spike in overdose deaths.
Prescriptions for certain types of painkillers, stimulants, and sedatives in Rhode Island peaked in 2011 and then began declining. By contrast, the number of overdose deaths held fairly steady through 2012 and then soared in 2013. The ProJo says the data suggest overdose deaths rose sharply in 2013 because people addicted to painkillers turned to illicit drugs as prescription drugs became more scarce.
The lack of data in Massachusetts doesn’t mean the overdose problem is any less serious. What it means is we don’t really know how serious it is. There may well be an epidemic of overdose deaths, but right now there are no data to prove it.
–BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
As Beacon Hill wrangles over a jobs bill, an interesting power struggle is developing over one of the state’s most popular tax credits, CommonWealth reports.
Sarah Iselin says she hopes to have the state’s health care exchange functional but still not working at optimum levels until the fall, the Associated Press reports.
As Massachusetts considers a paid sick leave law, a survey of businesses in Connecticut found that that state’s law did not increase company costs appreciably, Governing reports.
Lawmakers want to significantly narrow the hotel tax zone that would pay for an expansion of Boston‘s convention center.
Gov. Deval Patrick moves to give cities and towns control over their liquor licenses. Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley urged the change in a CommonWealth voices piece last year.
CASINOS
An owner of the Everett site of a proposed Wynn Resorts casino is refusing to sign a document assuring the state that no secret owners would benefit from sale of the land, a position that could derail the $1.3 billion proposal, the Globe reports. Ownership of the site, to which a convicted felon with a four-page rap sheet has been connected, is under state and federal investigation.
MARATHON BOMBINGS
An Obama administration report identifies communication gaps in Boston’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in the runup to last April’s bombings at the Boston Marathon.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
Kathleen Sebelius is out at the Department of Health and Human Services, the Daily Beast reports. The Atlantic analyzes what the move means for Obamacare. Paul Krugman argues that health care reform has brought out “a startling ugliness of spirit” in the country. “Obamacare has won. And that’s why Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius can resign,” writes Vox‘s Ezra Klein. Meanwhile, Obamacare enrollment continues to increase.
To raise money from commuters, a tax commission in Washington, DC, suggests a $25-per-employee tax to be leveled on businesses in the district, Governing reports.
ELECTIONS
The MassINC Polling Group’s Steve Koczela says survey data indicate the outsider image used so successfully by Deval Patrick and Elizabeth Warren will be hard to duplicate for Juliette Kayyem, Don Berwick, and Joe Avellone in the governor’s race. The new issue of CommonWealth spotlights the state’s long history of favoring outsider candidates for governor over established statewide officeholders.
Meanwhile, Berwick picks up endorsements from two former state lawmakers.
Scot Lehigh spotlights the complete pointlessness of the state’s lieutenant governor position.
Scott Brown’s path to victory in New Hampshire is a single-issue slog. A Public Policy Polling survey shows Jeanne Shaheen up by 8 points.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The state is launching a review of the stalled Southland development at the former naval air base in Weymouth to ensure the quasi-public authority overseeing the mixed-use project can repay the $30 million state loan that was used in the first phase.
Arianna Huffington and Marty Walsh both like country music.
EDUCATION
The New Bedford City Council voted unanimously “to send a message to the mayor and the school committee” by opposing a disciplinary investigation into a teacher who was the target of a chair-throwing incident by a student and didn’t report it.
A petition drive is underway to reverse the decision by the Old Rochester Regional School Committee to hold regular classes on Good Friday beginning next year.
A report by the student loan giant Sallie Mae says many low-income families are not saving for their children’s college because they think financial aid will cover all the costs.
HEALTH CARE
Steward Health Care’s financial performance may take longer to improve because of what Moody’s Investor Service calls a “challenging operating environment,” the Globe reports.
Doctors grow vaginas in the laboratory and implant them in four US patients, the BBC reports.
Newton is hosting four seminars to help parents relax and take care of their teenage children better, WBUR reports.
TRANSPORTATION
Rev. Bruce Wall has resigned from the organization of black Boston clergy that tried to shake down incoming commuter rail operator Keolis by handing a company official an “invoice” for $105,000 worth of “services” the ministers claim to have provided but were never asked to perform. Meanwhile, a Suffolk Superior Court judge rejected a bid by the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., which lost its contact to Keolis, to block the switchover to the French firm.
A new start-up called Bridj plans to introduce luxury “pop-up” bus service that will shuttle customers around the Boston area, joining Uber, Zipcar, and other entrants in the burgeoning alternative urban transportation field.
New signs along Route 6 will tell just how long you’ll be stuck in traffic on Cape Cod this summer.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
A federal judge rules in favor of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in a lawsuit brought by Massachusetts alleging the agency failed to use the best science available in setting groundfish catch limits, the Gloucester Times reports.
A fox bites a 5-year-old girl at a park in Derry, New Hampshire, the second attack in two days, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Plymouth ‘s first female police sergeant was demoted and another officer, who is her boyfriend, fired following an off-duty incident in which the woman allegedly caused two car accidents. She fled the scene and was never given a field sobriety test.
MEDIA
A local Worcester group drops out of the running for the Telegram & Gazette and now officials from a Florida chain of small newspapers are showing interest, the T&G reports.
WGBH’s Beat The Press was selected as the winner of the Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism by Penn State’s College of Communication.
The government supported CBC/Radio-Canada slashes spending, cuts 657 jobs, and says it will no longer compete for the rights to air most professional sports events.