Legislation is usually signed in the governor’s office.

But on Tuesday, Gina Raimondo stepped out of the State House and sat down at a table in a hot parking lot on Elmwood Avenue in Warwick to underscore her commitment to the fight against drug overdoses.

The site is the home of Bridgemark, which offers addiction recovery services. Roughly 100 people were in attendance, including lawmakers, doctors, staff members, and most importantly, people in recovery.

Isaiah is one of them. He is a resident at Bridgemark, a year into his recovery from alcohol addiction, and working as a cook at Gregg’s Restaurant on Post Road in Warwick. He helped guide people into parking spaces and got to shake the governor’s hand.

“It was amazing,” he said. “It’s nice to see someone like that care for families suffering from addiction.”

The recently adjourned session of the General Assembly enacted nine bills to combat the growing epidemic of opioid overdoses in Rhode Island.

“The whole focus here is getting people into treatment, preventing [overdoses] in the first place,” Raimondo said. “This isn’t about shame, this isn’t about stigma, this isn’t about punishment. Addiction is a disease, recovery is possible, and Rhode Island is leading the way by making sure we’re getting folks into treatment.”

Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed said the legislation focuses on controlling and monitoring these drugs when prescribed in order to help prevent addiction, as well as improving treatment coverage and follow-up care.

Paiva Weed thanked some of the providers and insurers, such as Lifespan, Blue Cross, CVS, and the Rhode Island Medical Society.

“Without all of you stepping up, it would have been so easy for the insurers, for Blue Cross, for Lifespan, and the hospitals to say, ‘We’re going to oppose this, you’re asking too much of us.’ But instead, you came to the table with compromises and solutions to make this happen,” she said.

Paiva Weed said there were 258 overdose deaths in Rhode Island last year, and 1,190 since 2011.

“That figure exceeds the number of deaths from motor vehicle accidents, firearms, and fires combined during that same period,” she said.

State Sen. Joshua Miller of Cranston, chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, sponsored multiple bills. He thanked the committee, as well as the families that came forward with their stories, those in recovery, and the governor.

“I think they’re going to save lives and improve lives,” he said. “This is part of what a senator should do and is obligated to do.”

State Rep. Deborah Fellela of Johnston introduced legislation creating a database of medicines used for the treatment of addiction that is monitored and compared to other states.

“If we can save one life daily, one life weekly, that’s the goal,” she said.

Legislation introduced by state Rep. Joseph McNamara of Warwick and Cranston increases the use of the prescription monitoring of opioids. The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program gives medical practitioners the ability to see other practitioners’ prescriptions and avoid over-prescription.

“Every community in Warwick has felt the negative impact of this opioid epidemic,” he said.

“People have this idea, this stigma of an addict. They’re just like you and me. It could happen to anybody,” said state Rep. David Bennett of Warwick, a co-signatory of five of the nine bills that passed.

Brian Goldner, chairman, president and CEO of Hasbro Inc., and his wife, Barbara, were in attendance. Their son, Brandon Goldner, died of an overdose last year.

“The overdose crisis does not discriminate. It can affect any family, from any part of the state, at any time,” Goldner said. “I want to thank Gov. Raimondo and the General Assembly for their leadership, and for working to ensure that people who end up in the emergency department get connected with the potentially life-saving treatment and recovery resources they need.”

Also in attendance was Brown University assistant professor Samuel Perry, whose brother, Alexander Perry, died of an overdose. The two families were important in the enacting of the legislation, including the Alexander Perry & Brandon Goldner Act, which requires comprehensive discharge planning for patients with substance use disorders. Both Perry and Goldner had been admitted to the emergency room prior to their fatal overdoses.

“I commend the efforts of the General Assembly and the governor to end the stigma of addiction and take meaningful steps to prevent overdoses, promote treatment, and save lives,” Perry said. “My hope is that this legislation will prevent any family from having to experience what we did. Addiction is a disease, but recovery is possible.”

“We started this legislative session in January, signing the Good Samaritan Bill,” Raimondo said. “And then from January until now we worked together collaboratively to put together a suite of bills.”

The Good Samaritan Bill exempts a person suffering from an overdose, or a person who seeks help for another person suffering from an overdose, from arrest, except in situations involving the manufacture or possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Now, this new “suite of bills” will help out the drug overdose epidemic even further.

Raimondo, in her speech, summed up how these bills function.

“These bills help prevent addiction in the first place by setting appropriate limits on initial prescribing and expanding use of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. They expand access to life-saving medication, requiring insurers to cover naloxone … connect Rhode Islanders in crisis with effective treatment and recovery services, requiring comprehensive discharge planning for overdose victims at the ER … and establish a process to certify recovery houses … and [promote] prevention, treatment and recovery,” she said.

The General Assembly also approved $3.5 million of Raimondo’s $4 million proposal to fight the overdose epidemic. Of that, $2 million will be provided to the Adult Correctional Institutions for medication-assisted treatment, and $1.5 million will go to Medicaid in order support Centers of Excellence, as well as expanding the use of peer-recovery coaches.

Seven of the bills took effect upon passage. The bill that “allows licensed chemical dependency professionals with the proper training to use treatment known as auricular acu-detox” and the bill that “requires all insurers to cover naloxone and related devices, including in cases where the medication is intended for patients other than the insured” will both take effect on Jan. 1, 2017. Senators and representatives alike came together on this legislation.

As Bennett said at the end of his speech: “We have to synchronize our efforts to beat this demon that’s walking our streets.”