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Committee advances bill requiring autopsies in suspected drug overdoses
Summary
A House-passed bill that would require coroners to turn over bodies for post-mortem examination when a drug overdose is suspected moved out of the State Agencies & Gov't Affairs committee after testimony that it would improve overdose death reporting and that the state crime lab can absorb the additional cases.
A committee on [STATE AGENCIES & GOV'T AFFAIRS-SENATE] on record advanced House Bill 1617, which would require coroners to turn over bodies for a post-mortem autopsy when a drug overdose is suspected.
Representative Nicole Clowney (District 21) told the committee the bill grew from interim work by a behavioral-health working group that found Arkansas underreports opioid-related deaths. She said better death counts are…
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