Tag: Opioid Abuse

State to Follow CDC Opioid Prescription Guidelines

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced Tuesday that starting in January, doctors who prescribe pain pills will be required to follow federal prescribing guidelines. 

The move was made in an attempt to lower state overuse and abuse rates. According to Rahul Gupta, the West Virginia state health officer and the commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health, West Virginia has the highest rate of prescription opioids per capita in the nation. 

“The majority of the people who end up abusing these medications really start by getting these medications not from drug dealers but from friends, family and caregivers,” he said. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a set of guidelines in March that encourages doctors to not consider opioid medication as a first-choice pain medication, and to talk with patients about the risks of using opioids as a response to chronic pain. 

Half a million people died nationwide from opioid overdoses between 2010 and 2014. West Virginia received national attention this fall when 26 people died from heroin overdoses in a four-hour period.

The Department of Health and Human Resources will begin educating providers about the guidelines later this month. 

 

FDA Head Talks Opioid Abuse in W.Va. Roundtable

The state with one of the highest overdose death rates in recent years welcomed Dr. Robert Califf Tuesday for a roundtable discussion focused on opioid…

The state with one of the highest overdose death rates in recent years welcomed Dr. Robert Califf Tuesday for a roundtable discussion focused on opioid abuse. 

Califf is the new head of the Federal Drug Administration- the federal agency that oversees medications for both people and animals and monitors the nation’s food supply, among other things. 

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, who campaigned against Califf’s presidential appointment earlier this year, said before the roundtable Tuesday in Charleston he plans to work closely with the FDA and DEA– the federal Drug Enforcement Agency– to cut down on the number of prescription drugs coming into the state.

“I want to see how connected FDA and DEA, how well they’re connected and talking to each other because both of those agencies are very much a part of the epidemic that we have going on right now and I want to know what they’re doing to stop it,” Manchin said.

Gov. Tomblin agrees, he believes federal agencies should be looking to curb the amount of prescription drugs being prescribed in a state, but for Tomblin, the focus is on reducing pill mills, something he says is playing out in lawsuits across West Virginia. 

“Today we can make the point [about] what they can do to better help the state keep from having pill mills and getting more and more people addicted to prescription drugs.”

Before the roundtable, which included a question and answer session with some of the top substance abuse experts and officials from across the state including many from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Tomblin touted the state’s progress in curbing addiction and expanding access to community based treatment during his time in office. 

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