National task force, including Weber commissioner, decries opioid epidemic
This Oct. 19, 2016 photo taken at Family Guidance Center, an addiction treatment center in Joliet, Ill, shows the packaging of Vivitrol, a high-priced monthly injection used to prevent relapse in opioid abusers. U.S. prisons are experimenting with the medication, which could help addicted inmates stay off heroin and other opioid drugs after they are released. (AP Photo/Carla K. Johnson)
Weber County Commissioner Matthew Bell was one of 22 Task Force members representing cities and counties across the U.S. that compiled a report prescribing ways to address the nationwide opioid epidemic.
Raymond Ward
The nation’s opioid overdose epidemic recently received scrutiny from a 22-member task force made up of city and county officials from around the U.S.
The panel, which included Weber County Commissioner Matthew Bell, released a series of recommendations Thursday in a report titled “A Prescription for Action, Local Leadership in Ending the Opioid Crisis.” Attempts to reach Bell for comment were unsuccessful.
“This has been a great opportunity for two major organizations — the National League of Cities and the National Association of Counties — to come together and recognize that we truly do have an epidemic in our country, one that kills 30,000 per year in terms of opiate overdoses,” Task Force Co-Chairman Mark Stodola said during a conference call Thursday.
Stodola currently serves as mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, and is also second vice-president for the National League of Cities.
“The facts and figures of this epidemic are something that need to be spoken about loudly and clearly, and there really needs to be clarion call of action for us,” Stodola said, noting that Americans consume up to 80 percent of the world’s prescription opioids and on average, 650,000 opiate prescriptions are dispensed daily in the U.S.
Story continues below graphic.
Graphic by Standard-Examiner
In 2015, 89 opioid prescriptions were dispensed per every 100 Utah residents — an increase of 29 percent since 2002, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Utah is no stranger to this crisis, ranking fourth in the nation for drug overdose deaths with an average of 24 people dying monthly from prescription opioid overdoses. In 2015, 89 opioid prescriptions were dispensed per every 100 Utah residents — an increase of 29 percent since 2002, according to the Utah Department of Health.
Recommendations from the report include:
• Raising public awareness about the problem and teaching children about the risks of opiate-based painkillers
• Facilitating safe disposal of unused medications
• Making naloxone — the drug that can reverse overdoses — widely available
• Implementing clean syringe programs to decrease the spread of HIV and Hepatitis
• Expanding medication-assisted treatment along with insurance coverage for treatment programs
• Reducing the illicit supply of opioids
• Favoring treatment over incarceration for low-level drug offenders, facilitating treatment inside jails, and ending discrimination against people with drug-related criminal offenses on job applications
An estimated 64 percent of jail inmates struggle with addiction, according to Judge Gary Moore from Boone County, Kentucky. Moore, who co-chaired the task force with Stodola, urged more flexibility in the Medicaid program to cover their treatment costs.
“When it comes to the addicted person on the street, we feel that law enforcement should be focusing more on helping us find treatment for those individuals and not necessarily incarceration,” Moore said.
In March 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new opioid prescription guidelines, and the Task Force urged states to adopt similar guidelines to reduce the glut of narcotic painkillers in circulation.
Task Force member Stephen Williams, the mayor of Huntington, West Virginia, also participated. He described the epidemic that ravaged his city as one “you can’t arrest your way out of.”
RELATED: 4 Hours in Huntington: How the heroin epidemic choked a city
“I don’t think it’s overstating the matter … to say that this is a national problem. The most significant public health challenge that every community in the nation is facing is the level of the opiate epidemic,” Williams said, urging everyone to take ownership because it affects all demographics.
Utah’s approach
Weber County Sheriff Terry Thompson acknowledged the critical need for inmate treatment programs in his jail, but expressed frustration over changes enacted under the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), legislation enacted in March 2015 that favored treatment over incarceration for low-level drug offenders.
“The treatment portion (of JRI) has never been funded through the state Legislature, and yet we’re releasing people out of our prisons and jails. We’re basically saying we don’t care,” Thompson said. “When I talk to drug court grads, I tell them the best thing that happened to them is getting arrested — and they nod in agreement. That’s what initiated their ability to dry out and think rationally, and to see that it’s destroying their lives and those of their loved ones.”
By accepting six to nine months of treatment, Thompson said inmates stand a better chance of succeeding. In 2015, the Utah Legislature allocated $4.9 million to fund more than 40 drug court programs statewide.
According to the 2016 annual JRI report compiled by the Utah Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice, new court commitments for drug-possession-only crimes decreased by 69 percent since 2014 due to the legislation’s paradigm shift.
Kevin Burton, chief deputy over the Weber County Sheriff’s Corrections Division, said Weber County Jail housed 773 inmates as of Thursday and an average stay is about 28 days. Medical protocols are in place to monitor the health of those withdrawing from drug or alcohol use after getting booked into jail. However, those who don’t qualify for drug court have few treatment options inside the jail, Burton said.
“They can attend classes that can help. We keep them engaged with mental health counseling if they need that,” Burton said. “And we connect them with agencies that can help when they get released.”
Burton voiced enthusiasm for the new Vivitrol (Naltrexone) program the jail recently launched in conjunction with Midtown Community Health Center. Vivitrol blocks the pleasurable affects of drugs or alcohol, thereby discouraging relapses. In March, Midtown obtained a $300,000 federal grant to administer Vivitrol for two years. The cost per monthly injection runs about $1,300, Midtown Executive Director Alicia Martinez said.
Dr. Kay Haw oversees medical treatment for inmates at the Weber County Jail. On Friday, she echoed Burton’s enthusiasm and Thompson’s frustration about limited funding for treatment.
“I only have so many slots, so we are administering Vivitrol to those who go through the drug court program,” Haw said. “Within three months, I’ve already gone through half of what I’ve been allotted. Its sad, because I think there’s a huge problem and I’m limited in what I can do based on the resources I have.”
After running several lab tests on potential Vivitrol candidates, Haw said that those who qualify get their first injection before getting released from jail. They’re also issued ID information to alert medical personnel of their Vivitrol use and get signed up for their next monthly injection at Midtown.
Haw attributed the need for opiate addiction treatment, in part, to physicians and their prescribing patterns.
“That’s how people get started in this whole cycle of addiction.They were in an automobile accident or whatever, they go to the emergency room or their doctor, and that starts the ball rolling,” Haw said. “I think that’s been part of the problem nationwide.”
According to Martinez, the Midtown grant covers Vivitrol injections for Weber and Davis County drug court participants.
Midtown currently teams with the Opioid Community Collaborative (OCC), which includes Intermountain Healthcare, Davis Behavioral Health and Weber Human Services, to offer medication-assisted treatment for prescription drug misuse.
“Between our program and theirs, I think we’ll be able to make a big impact,” Martinez said. “The problem is enormous and substance use disorders are not isolated to one community. Our program can only serve individuals below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. We all have a piece to play.”
Slowing the pill flow
Rep. Raymond Ward, R-Bountiful is a family physician who is sponsoring legislation in the upcoming 2017 legislative session to limit prescribing of opioids. Last Wednesday, he presented his unnumbered bill to the Health and Human Services Interim Committee.
“We already have a 30-day rule. That’s the most you can prescribe at a time,” Ward told committee members. His draft legislation would limit a patient’s first prescription to no more than seven days. “These medications are risky. The first prescription should be short to minimize that risk.”
According to Ward, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration recently enacted a rule for 2017 that reduces allowed production of oxycodone and hydrocodone by 25 to 33 percent.
“What that means is that unless prescribing practices are changed, everyone will run out in August,” Ward said.
Contact reporter Cathy McKitrick at 801-625-4214 or cmckitrick@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @catmck.