Treatment Programs Need More Money to Combat the Opioid Epidemic

Not enough resources are going to the Opioid Epidemic. A pharmacoepidemiologist from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine created an abatement plan that could cut overdoses, deaths, and number of people with substance use disorder in half within 15 years. It would do this by focusing more on prevention, treatment, recovery, and special populations. The problem with this is that it will cost a lot of money and the government will need stable and reliable money, and grants are not stable or reliable enough. It would instead need funding ($2.7 billion) from the creators of the crisis, major opioid manufacturers.

A trial involving Cabell County and Huntington, AmerisourceBergen Corp., Cardinal Health, and McKesson Co. is almost over. The three companies are being accused of shipping excessive amounts of opioids to West Virginia communities, creating the crisis that has people taking illicit drugs to resolve their symptoms. The companies blame the DEA, bad prescribing habits, and West Virginian’s poor health for the large shipments. The opioid epidemic is still going on and proof of this was presented at the trial. There were 37 deaths by opioid overdoses and 17.6 percent of umbilical cords tested positive for opioids in 2016. There are an estimated 7,882 opioid use disorder sufferers in Cabell County.

The crisis is relatively easy to fix, but it will cost a lot of money. Current programs need to be expanded and more programs need to be added. Defense attorneys for the companies claim the plan is an overreach and involves paying for people who never used prescription drugs, which the companies made and shipped. The pharmacoepidemiologist argued that it doesn’t matter what drugs people are addicted to, there is just one opioid epidemic. If sustainable funding is found for these programs, these treatment programs could be attainable.

A major step in the right direction would be teaching doctors how to prescribe pain pills from a non-biased source. People who disproportionately prescribe large amounts need to be targeted and reeducated to help them understand the risks involved when prescribing opioids. The treatment infrastructure also needs to be expanded to include inpatient care, residential rehabilitation care, intensive outpatient treatment, and routine outpatient care, which should be the primary form of treatment. It is the least costly, only costing $63.77 a day compared to intensive treatment ($69.01), residential ($78.15), and inpatient ($78.95).

The most important thing is getting people in need of treatment to the best treatment for them. There needs to be better access, with more availability for care as well as more naloxone distribution programs.  Lock boxes containing the lifesaving drug need to be strategically placed around the country. A study was referenced that had people from three categories: untreated people, successfully treated people, and people treated but relapsed. People that never enter recovery are more than twice as likely to die from substance use disorder than the people who have been successful in treatment.

First responders having an overdose response team is also an important part of combating the epidemic. These teams can be trained to respond to and investigate overdoses to find the source of the drug so it can ultimately be stopped. We also need better mental health counseling and vocational training. Drug court services have also shown to be successful with 82 percent of Cabell County graduates not reoffending within one year of graduation.

When examining special populations, it has been found that half of students in Cabell County are being raised by someone who is not a parent. It was found that in 2017, 54 of 1,000 children, twice the national average, were affected by the opioid crisis and that 1 in 5 had a parent die because of it. The plaintiffs are wrapping up their presentation, which has gone on for seven weeks.

If you were impacted by the opioid crisis, contact us to see if you could be owed compensation. Call us at 412-471-3980 or fill out our contact form and one of our attorneys or staff members will get back to you as soon as possible.

Source:

Courtney Hessler, “Proper funds, programs could reduce by half the local impact of the opioid crisis, expert says” The herald-Dispatch (June 28, 2021). [Link]