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SALT LAKE CITY — Dennis Cecchini, an architect from Taylorsville, sat in front of a committee of lawmakers Thursday and told them about how his son died at age 33.
Four days after his son returned from a treatment facility, he overdosed on heroin in his shower. Cecchini said that he and his wife got to the bathroom in time to save him — but even his wife, an EMT, "had no idea how to," he said.
"We had to watch our son die on the bathroom floor," Cecchini said. "No one should have to do that. No one."
Lawmakers in the House Health and Human Services committee advanced five bills and one resolution Thursday, all meant to target the growing prescription painkiller epidemic in Utah.
In 2014, Utah had the seventh-highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the nation.
The resolution, sponsored by Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, seeks to declare the trend a public health emergency.
Moss also helped sponsor HB238. Paired with HB240, sponsored by Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, the two measures would expand access to naloxone, an overdose reversal drug the Legislature approved for physicians to prescribe in 2014.
Eliason's bill would allow doctors to issue standing orders to pharmacies so that people can obtain naloxone kits even if they don't have a prescription in hand. And Moss' bill would permit people to give naloxone kits to others so long as they provide instruction on how to administer it.
In particular, Moss said, it's important that people know to call 911 first before administering naloxone.
The drug is easy to administer and safe, said Dr. Jennifer Plumb, an emergency department physician at Primary Children's Hospital and the medical director of Utah Naloxone.
She said the bill should be in the hands of every provider, parent and friend, but many are still not aware that it exists.
Jen Lovett, whose daughter was saved by naloxone, said she had trouble getting the drug after a provider refused to prescribe it to her. She also witnessed an EMT refuse to administer naloxone to a man who appeared to be overdosing.
"We have much education to do," Lovett said.
Rep. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, sought to put more funding behind the effort with HB192, which would allocate $500,000 to the Utah Department of Health, mostly to purchase naloxone kits.
He is also the sponsor of HB239, which would require the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing to integrate prescription information in its controlled substance database with the electronic health systems that prescribers and pharmacists use.
Rep. Edward Redd, R-Logan, an internal medicine physician, said the program must be designed carefully to prevent health records from being disseminated illegally.
"I don't want to go to prison," Redd said.
The committee also advanced a bill sponsored by Redd, which directs the Utah Department of Human Services to coordinate care for at-risk youth.
Redd said the bill was based on his experience as a physician in a detention center for adolesents.
"What we have currently in the state is a paper system, meaning I have access to whatever I have in the chart of that particular person at the time I'm seeing the child," Redd said. "And it's really a disadvantage."
Lana Stohl, the deputy director for the Department of Human Services, spoke in favor of the bill.
Stohl said the criminal justice, family services and mental health branches of the department "function in silos."
According to fiscal analysts, the Department of Human Services infrastructure would take $1.8 million to develop and implement.
Earlier, the House also passed HB114, sponsored by Rep. Raymond Ward, R-Bountiful, to the Senate. The bill strengthens certain reporting requirements for controlled substance violations.
Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche Email: dchen@deseretnews.com Twitter: DaphneChen_
