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DALLAS - Dallas City Council Members Paula Blackmon and Adam Bazaldua announce the signing of Senate Bill 1319.
Senate Bill 1319, filed by Houston-area Senator Joan Huffman, will require physicians and health care institutions treating substance overdose to share overdose data with law enforcement agencies of the municipality or county in which the physician practices. The new law takes effect September 1, 2023.
“We want to thank the fearless Senator Huffman for authoring this bill and championing its importance on behalf of so many families in Texas. We thank of course our Dallas legislative delegation for believing in this bill’s impact on our own community. We also want to recognize the tireless advocacy of our partners at Dallas County, John Creuzot, and his team, Dr. Stephanie Elizalde at Dallas ISD and others, as well as our own emergency personnel responding to this crisis.”
“Two weeks ago, the City of Dallas commemorated Fentanyl Awareness Day at Dallas City Hall and heard directly from families who have been impacted by this epidemic, including my own friends, Judie and Daragh, who lost their son, Martin, to one pill.” said Council Member Paula Blackmon. “It is because of families like Martin’s that we launched an aggressive public education campaign and engaged our area school districts to further get this critical information into the hands of parents.”
By making the disclosure required by law, SB 1319 allows providers to make a limited disclosure of the overdose information and remain in compliance with privacy laws. SB 1319 strikes a careful and necessary balance between privacy and the public health and safety needs of reporting overdose information. It also allows law enforcement agencies to map these overdoses for public safety purposes and allows municipalities to work with a private overdose mapping entity.
Council Member Bazaldua said, “Like the rest of the nation, the opioid crisis is in Dallas. Allowing opioid data sharing between law enforcement, fire and EMS departments within the same city makes sense, and it is urgently needed.”
In November 2022, Blackmon and Bazaluda launched a multi-agency Opioid Strikeforce Team. It is this team that has have been working with first responders and the public health authority, as well as school districts and non-profit organizations, to bring together every resource available to support the Dallas community and medics on the front line.
The City of Dallas Overdose Response Team (ORT), a partnership between the DFW-based nonprofit Recovery Resource Council and Dallas Fire-Rescue, conducts follow-up visits within 72 hours to residents who experienced an overdose requiring transport to a hospital or 911 call.
Families are then offered resources, including naloxone (also known as Narcan) and connection to treatment options. Narcan is a medication that quickly reverses the effects of opioids within three minutes, can prevent death due to an opioid overdose if administered fast, does not require a prescription, can be given as a nasal spray, and has no effect on a person who does not have opioids in their system.
This short-acting medication may be administered more than once, is available in pharmacies without a prescription, and can be ordered online for free at MoreNarcanPlease.com. Texas State legislators are currently contemplating ways to increase the availability of Narcan.
Test strips that quickly detect trace amounts of Fentanyl which may be fatal are also available — but currently illegal in Texas. Bills that would have made them legal in our state did not pass this legislative session.
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