Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, signed a
number of particularly significant bills into law, among various legislation
approved recently by the Republican-majority state legislature in its last
session before the General Election on Tuesday.
The first
law signed by Governor Corbett eliminates “doctor shopping,” the practice of
people who abuse prescription drugs by obtaining such drugs from more than one
doctor willing to prescribe them simultaneously, by establishing a statewide
drug prescription database. The
bipartisan legislation was cited as necessary especially to reduce addiction to
cocaine and heroin, to which prescription drug abusers often are attracted,
which has caused a spate of overdose deaths this year.
The second
law Corbett signed closes the legal loophole that allows teachers charged with
child abuse who are fired by a school district from being hired by other school
districts without any disclosure to their new employers of the abuse
allegations, a practice known as “passing the trash.” After the reform legislation was originally
met with some resistance from the teachers’ union, the union changed its stance
and the bill was approved by the General Assembly without opposition.
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