Opioid bill’s commitment power, prescription caps draw objections

BOSTON – Lawmakers grappling for responses to the drug-abuse epidemic that has killed hundreds of Bay State residents heard Monday from Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh in support of Baker's proposal to let doctors order involuntary three-day commitments of addicts and to limit initial prescriptions for addictive painkillers. But a major physicians' association, the Massachusetts Medical Society, objected to those key provisions of Baker's proposed measure, in a hearing before t

BOSTON – Lawmakers grappling for responses to the drug-abuse epidemic that has killed hundreds of Bay State residents heard Monday from Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh in support of Baker's proposal to let doctors order involuntary three-day commitments of addicts and to limit initial prescriptions for addictive painkillers. But a major physicians' association, the Massachusetts Medical Society, objected to those key provisions of Baker's proposed measure, in a hearing before t…