Gov. Reeves signs law to stop pill presses being used without authorization - WLOX

JACKSON, Miss. (WLOX) - A law aimed at reducing the number of opioid deaths will soon be in effect

Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 679 into law on Tuesday. Known as the “Victoria Huggins’ Mississippi Pill Press Law,” it makes it illegal to own specialized pharmaceutical equipment, like a pill press, without authorization.

The law prevents any person from knowingly or intentionally possessing, creating, selling, bartering, transferring, manufacturing or distributing a pill press, a punch, die, plate, tableting machine, encapsulating machine or any similar pharmaceutical producing equipment unless it has been authorized by the State Board of Pharmacy.

Lawmakers hope the new law will help prevent the manufacture of controlled substances and counterfeit pills. Any person who violates the law will face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

Over the last year, more than 100,000 Americans died from overdoses, and a large potion of those deaths are blamed on fentanyl, which is similar to heroin but several times stronger. Lawmakers say the new law will give authorities an additional way to punish criminals who lace pills with the deadly drug.

In Harrison County, the number of deaths attributed to fentanyl overdoses have more than doubled since 2018. According to Coroner Brian Switzer, the uptick is mostly affecting people between the ages of 24-45.

Nationally, adolescent drug overdose deaths doubled from 2010 to 2021, according to a study published last month in the Medical Journal JAMA. The research says there were about 500 adolescent overdose deaths in 2010 and more than 1,100 in 2021. Fentanyl was involved in more than 75% of deaths in 2021.

To read Mississippi House Bill 679 in full, click here.

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source: https://www.wlox.com/2022/04/13/gov-reeves-signs-law-stop-pill-presses-being-used-without-authorization/

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