Please join Arizona's Don't Punish Pain Rally page to network with other CPP advocates from Arizona

In April of 2022, Arizona passed a law, Bill SB1162,  protecting pain patients. 

Dr. Jeffrey Singer testified if favor of the bill

Governor Doug Ducey Signs SB1162 into Law Helping Arizonians with Chronic Intractable Pain Get the Treatment They Need

Senator Nancy Barto introduced Arizona SB1162 in January 2022. This new law will give protections to chronic intractable pain patients in Arizona. This amendment to ARS Section 32-3248.01, will improve access to care, give physicians the ability to treat their patients as medically appropriate, and confirm that providers and their state governing boards have oversight on the proper treatment for these patients.

Please join New Hampshire's Don't Punish Pain Rally Facebook page to network with other advocates from NH.

New Hampshire’s Bill, HB1639, was signed by Governor Sununu in August of 2020. It was originally created as a separate bill, SB 546, but was later added to Omnibus Bill HB1639. 

The bill was created and passed with the amazing efforts of Bill Murphy, CPP advocate and original member of Don't Punish Pain Rally. When the bill was signed into law, Bill Murphy created this tweet: 

"New Hampshire’s Bill, HB1639, has been signed by Governor Sununu. This Bill addresses the “Treatment of Chronic Pain”. Key sections of this legislation are attached"

On June 2, 2021, Rhode Island's Governor Dan McKee signed Bill 384 into law. A copy of the bill can also be found here. Greg Amore, Claudia Merandi's local Representative, fought hard for this bill to pass which protects intractable pain patients from the 2016 CDC Opioid Guidelines. Recently, in March 2022, Arizona also passed legislation that was based on this bill from Rhode Island. That has been Claudia's hope for years, that she could pass a bill in Rhode Island that would trickle down into other states. Practical Pain Management covered this story.

Please join Rhode Island's Don't Punish Rally Facebook page to network with other CPP's in Rhode Island.

• States with legislation protecting CPP's
• List of all state laws about opioid prescribing
• Advocacy Tools with tips on how to get legislation in your state

States With Legislation Protecting CPP's:

• Rhode Island Bill 384
• Oklahoma Bill SB57
• New Hampshire
• Minnesota (Voted out of Committee. Hearing date for next committee isn't set yet)
• Arizona 

List of All State Laws About Opioid Prescribing:

Many states have prescribing laws.  Read An Examination of State and Federal Opioid Analgesics and Continuing Education policies which was printed in 2020. We've also included the pdf version of the article. The purpose of the article is "To evaluate the impact of its Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested the opioid manufacturers responsible for implementing that program provide information regarding opioid policy changes from 2016 to 2018. FDA also requested a survey of state requirements for pain and opioid prescribing continuing education (CE), the number of prescribers affected by those requirements, the extent to which a REMS-compliant CE program would meet each state’s requirements, and the number of relevant CE programs available."  

We've included two charts that list prescribing laws state by state

1. This includes state laws and Continuing Education laws
2. Laws limiting the prescribing and dispensing of opioids done by the Network For Public Health Law

See our Advocacy Tools to see tips on how to start the process of getting legislation in your state.

CPP advocate from NH, Bill Murphy, walks you through the process of getting legislation in your state: