Michael Botticelli Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Obama Administration Doubles Down on Efforts to Reduce Opioid Abuse

President Obama’s administration is doubling down on efforts to reduce prescription opioid and heroin abuse across the nation after two major announcements in the past week.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released revised guidelines for the prescription of opioids for chronic pain. President Obama also announced that he would speak at the National Prescription Drug and Heroin Summit in Atlanta next week.

“The president’s trip to Atlanta follows his trip last year to West Virginia where he met with many people affected by the opioid epidemic,” says Michael Botticelli – Director of National Drug Control Policy. Botticelli hosted a conference call with reporters Tuesday to detail the Obama administration’s continued efforts to combat substance abuse.

“In West Virginia he announced a number of new public and private sector actions to address the epidemic, including a presidential memorandum on prescriber training and opioid use disorder treatment,” he says.

The revised CDC prescribing guidelines were not a direct result of Obama’s trip to West Virginia, but are a part of the efforts to reduce opioid and heroin use across the nation – particularly in hard hit areas like Appalachia. Botticelli says the guidelines are intended to be of particular help to primary care providers who currently account for prescribing nearly half of all opioids.

But the White House is not just looking to change policies in the fight against drug use. Earlier this month the federal government also awarded 94 million dollars to 271 health centers in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Five clinics in West Virginia received more than one and a half million dollars of that grant money.

“These critical funds for states will help to improve and expand substance abuse disorder services with an emphasis on medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorders,” says Botticelli.

Botticelli says funding states is a critical piece of the federal strategy for combating the epidemic and that letters were sent out to all 50 governors highlighting best practices. These include requiring all providers to be trained in opioid prescription, requiring providers to use their state’s prescription drug monitoring program and supporting syringe services programs.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

Capito Hosts Roundtable in Morgantown on Economy of Addiction

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Michael Botticelli, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) met in Morgantown this week to talk about the economic and social effects of drug addiction – opioid addiction especially.

Director Botticelli says throughout the nation, younger people in suburbs and rural areas are finding themselves addicted opioids.

“Which really challenges us,” Botticelli said. “Sometimes these people are very isolated, they might not have immediate access to treatment programs. So I think we have to think differently not only as a nation but as communities about what kind if infrastructure we have in place, how we reach out to these really isolated people and communities and make sure that we’re engaging them in care.”

Botticelli said one compelling detail that surfaced during the roundtable in Morgantown came from local economists who discussed how area businesses are finding it difficult to hire people who can pass a drug screen.

“If you can’t pass the initial drug screen, your entry into the job market is pretty much shot,” Capito said, “and so it just adds to the despair and your own self destruction.”

Neither Capito nor Botticelli talked too much about why so many young people are self-destructing except to say that prescription pills are still too easy to access. They did discuss efforts to expand evidence-based public health and public safety approaches to reduce drug use and its consequences.

Two W.Va. Counties Designated Drug Trafficking Areas

The federal government will provide additional help to two West Virginia counties to reduce drug abuse and drug trafficking.

Berkeley and Harrison counties are among 26 counties and cities in 11 states designated as high intensity drug trafficking areas.

Office of National Drug Control Policy acting director Michael Botticelli announced the designations on Monday.

The designation increases the counties’ access to federal resources and information sharing among federal, state and local law enforcement.

Seventeen other West Virginia counties previously were designated as high intensity drug trafficking areas.

National Drug Official Pays a Visit to Huntington

Drug and law enforcement officials were in Huntington Wednesday as the Huntington Police department outlined their fight.

The National Drug Control Policy Acting Director Michael Botticelli was in Huntington Wednesday with Congressman Nick Rahall to take a look at the efforts being made by the Huntington Police Department to fight the use and trafficking of illegal drugs. Captain Hank Dial gave an overview.

“What we had in Fairfield and Weed and Seed was were fighting open air drug markets and crack cocaine, now it has shifted to diverted pills and heroin and we did not see an increase in crime in the West End, but we did not see the decreases we saw in the rest of the city,” Dial said.

From 2008 to 2010 Huntington established a Weed and Seed program in the Fairfield area of Huntington.

Its purpose was to weed out drugs and crime and plant seeds of community action. At the time the Weed and Seed Area in Fairfield contained only 20% of Huntington’s population, but accounted for 60% of murders, 77% of prostitution arrests and 44% of adult drug crimes. Since implementing approaches like Weed and Seed, this area has seen a reduction of 28% in violent crime and a 35% decrease in drug offenses. National Drug Control Policy Acting Director Michael Botticelli.

“One of the reasons that we came here with the congressman was to also look at the really innovative and collaborative programs that are happening here at the local level, one of the functions of our office is to set federal policy, but to also ensure that community’s like Huntington get the resources they need to be able to implement programs like this and it’s really been impressive,” Botticelli said.

Huntington police are no focusing on the West End, which Botticelli and others toured Wednesday. Police have taken lessons they’ve learned from Weed and Seed and are trying to replicate those successes here. The River to Rail program as they call their effort in the West End started in 2012 and is still on going. Huntington officials say that the drugs in those areas are coming from Columbus, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. Botticelli said at the federal level they’re working on ways to track prescription medicine.

“One of the things that we’re looking at is state level databases that actually track prescription prescribing and one of the initiatives that we’re working on is to make sure these databases can talk and so what we want to make sure is that we’re sharing that information across state lines,” Botticelli said.

During a four month period in 2013 in the West End there were 38 arrests made, confiscation of 242 grams of heroin and more than $18,000 dollars seized. Much like the efforts during the Weed and Seed Fight, the efforts are based on law enforcement and community engagement. Congressman Nick Rahall said the efforts made in Huntington affect much of the southern part of the state, because much of the drugs come through Huntington.

“This is a major artery where they come from the Midwestern states, Michigan, Detroit and they come right down through here and sometimes Huntington isn’t there only stop and they’ll continue into southern West Virginia. Huntington is crucial in this battle against drugs in West Virginia,” Rahall said.

The tour of Huntington also took Botticelli and Rahall to the Healing Place rehabilitation facility and to Cabell Huntington Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care unit where addicted babies are cared for. Rahall also hosted a roundtable discussion on the topic in Beckley Wednesday night.