At a press conference Tuesday, Governor Larry Hogan and Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford announced a package of legislation addressing opioid addiction and overdoses.

The Cecil Whig reports:

The Prescriber Limits Act would prevent doctors from prescribing more than seven days worth of opioid painkillers during a patient’s first visit or consultation. The law exempts patients going through cancer treatment and those diagnosed with a terminal illness.

The Distribution of Opioids Resulting in Death Act would introduce a new felony charge carrying up to 30 years in prison for people convicted of illegally selling opioids or opioid analogues that result in the death of a user. Rutherford said the law would carry protections for people who were selling to support their addiction.

 And the Overdose Prevention Act authorizes the collection of and review of non-fatal overdose data and would make it easier for people to fill prescriptions for naloxone, a drug that can counteract the effects of an opioid overdose.

Rutherford also announced that the governor would sign an executive order that will create an Opioid Operations Command Center — a “virtual” task force charged with organizing training and funding for local anti-addiction teams as well as collecting data on opioid use and abuse.

Maryland remains in the grips of a heroin and opioid crisis. As previously reported on Conduit Street, overdose deaths in Maryland reached a new high in 2016 with more deaths during the first nine months of the year than of all of 2015.