The Trump administration has extended its public health emergency on the opioid crisis. The move came just days before the original declaration signed in…
The Trump administration has extended its public health emergency on the opioid crisis. The move came just days before the original declaration signed in October was set to expire.
Acting Health And Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan signed an order Friday to extend the public health emergency for another 90 days. In a post on the agency’s website Hargan cited the continued consequences of the opioid crisis.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin were among a group of Democratic lawmakers from hard-hit states who wrote to the president two weeks ago urging him to continue the health emergency.
In an interview, Brown said too little action has been taken during the emergency declaration and he and his colleagues want a chance to work with the administration to fund needed resources.
“We need better education, prevention, and treatment facilities. And better really means scaling them up,” Brown said. “Far too many people who are addicted die waiting to get treatment.”
The emergency declaration was the first recommendation from the president’s commission on the opioid crisis.
Trump’s proposal included expanded addiction treatment through telemedicine, a nationwide education program, and a shift in funds to provide more resources.
Many public health experts in the Ohio Valley Region say the declaration was a positive step toward combating the opioid epidemic. But many of the proposed programs have yet to get off the ground.
As the opioid epidemic continues to kill people across the country, local governments are struggling to get a handle on the problem. More and more, states…
As the opioid epidemic continues to kill people across the country, local governments are struggling to get a handle on the problem. More and more, states and municipalities are filing suit against pharmaceutical companies. That trend started right here, in the place that’s known as the “epicenter” of the opioid crisis.
West Virginia deals with the highest overdose death rates in the country, and it was the first state to file suit against quote, “Big Pharma.” About a year ago, McDowell was the first county, Huntington the first city and the tiny town of Kermit the first town to follow in state leaders’ footsteps and file suit against pharmaceutical companies.
The hope is that a victory in these suits could provide money to help fund things like recovery centers, and more police.
Reporter Jessica Lilly visited Kermit to see how opioids have devastated the town, and why officials there are trying to recoup costs from out-of-state drug distributors.
Ground Zero
Kermit used to be a booming coal town. Named after Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, this town has also been called the “ground zero” for the opioid epidemic.
A Pulitzer Prize winning report in 2016 by Eric Eyre in the Charleston Gazette found that wholesaler pharmaceutical companies flooded Kermit with more than 12 million hydrocodone tablets between 2007 and 2012.
The ratio of pills to people is staggering: about 30,000 pills for each Kermit resident.
A medical office was shut down, and a pharmacy is under new ownership after the former operators spent time in jail for operating a so-called “pill mill” network.
Residents say things have slowed down. They don’t see as many out of state license plates. The pharmacy parking lot is not as full.
But people in Kermit are still struggling with the aftermath of the pills that flooded their town.
Last January Mayor Charles Sparks filed a lawsuit on behalf of the town of Kermit. The suit names four pharmaceutical companies, the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy, and the former owner of Justice Medical Clinic. The suit is seeking compensation for damages to the town, and better monitoring of pills entering the town by the Board of Pharmacy.
In 2016, the majority of overdose deaths in W.Va. involved opioids. The CDC reports that opioid overdose deaths were five times higher in 2016 than 1999.
A Different Town
Councilperson Tammy Hodge says the town has really changed.
“In a sense we died,” Hodge said. ”It’s still a good town and it still have very, very good people in it, but it’s not the town that town that I grew up in.”
The fire station in Kermit serves this community, parts of Mingo County, and even parts of neighboring Wayne County. Wilburn Preece, the Kermit Volunteer Fire Chief. lost his brother, the assistant fire chief, four months ago to a drug overdose.
“I was the first one on the scene,” Preece said.
Preece’s brother, Timmy Dale Preece, was the youngest son in a family of 13 brothers and sisters. Preece says his brother saved many lives during his 54 years, but he ended up losing his own.
“I miss him more every day. Every call we get I was used to having him there by my side and I don’t have him now,” he said.
Timmy Dale had apparently relapsed. He had battled drugs before. Willburn says he was injured in a car accident when he was 14 and ended up doctor shopping for pain pills.
New Future?
After his brother died, Wilburn pushed to get the opioid overdose reversal medicine Naloxone at the Kermit Fire Station. While Naloxone wouldn’t have saved his brother, Wilburn hopes he could save someone else’s life.
In just six weeks, Preece said he administered three doses and saved three lives.
Preece says the lawsuit filed by Mayor Charles Sparks on behalf of the town of Kermit has brought new hope to folks in the region.
Wilburn’s hope is that the fire department has enough money to continue to stock Naloxone, and maybe to build a recovery center close by. He would also like to see a new community center for the kids.
He says these investments would show they aren’t giving up on their town or their children’s future.
During a federal hearing in Cleveland earlier this month, Judge Dan Polster argued that the crisis is “100 percent man made.” He said he believes everyone from drug-makers to doctors, and even individuals share some responsibility for the crisis and haven’t done enough to stop it. The judge also urged participants in lawsuits against drug-makers and distributors to work toward a common goal of reducing overdose deaths.
We reached out to the defendants in the Kermit lawsuit.
Laurie K. Miller from the Jackson and Kelly law firm, representing Miami-Luken, wrote back to say in part … “Miami-Luken is aware of the allegations made in the Kermit case and plans to vigorously defend itself in that litigation. Because this litigation is on-going, Miami-Luken cannot comment further on the matter.”
Justin C. Taylor with the Bailey and Wyant law firm representing the W.Va. Board of Pharmacy said, “Unfortunately, because this matter is in litigation and with the W.Va. Board of Pharmacy named as a defendant in numerous lawsuits, I cannot comment or give an interview. Furthermore, the W.Va. Board of Pharmacy also cannot give any statements or be available for interviews at this time due to the ongoing litigation.”
Cardinal Health said, “The people of Cardinal Health care deeply about the devastation opioid abuse has caused American families and communities and are committed to helping solve this complex national public health crisis. … We operate as part of a multi-faceted and highly regulated healthcare system – we do not promote or prescribe prescription medications to members of the public – and believe everyone in that chain, including us, must do their part, which is ultimately why we believe these copycat lawsuits filed against us are misguided, and do nothing to stem the crisis. We will defend ourselves vigorously in court and at the same time continue to work, alongside regulators, manufacturers, doctors, pharmacists and patients, to fight opioid abuse and addiction.”
And McKesson Corporation said in part “…This complicated, multi-faceted public health crisis cannot be solved by any one participant. It needs to be addressed through a comprehensive approach that includes the doctors, patients, pharmacists, insurance companies, government payers (such as Medicaid and Medicare), distributors, manufacturers, law enforcement and regulators.”
AmerisourceBergen said in part “…Beyond our reporting and immediate halting of tens of thousands of potentially suspicious orders, we refuse service to customers we deem as a diversion risk and provide daily reports to the DEA that detail the quantity, type, and the receiving pharmacy of every single order of these products that we distribute.”
A new survey of likely West Virginia voters on the issues expected to come up during this year’s legislative session included some striking views on the…
A new survey of likely West Virginia voters on the issues expected to come up during this year’s legislative session included some striking views on the state’s opioid epidemic.
Pollsters with Orion Strategies, a public relations firm, asked if voters view addiction as a medical condition or as a moral weakness. About a third said it’s a disease, just over 40 percent said it’s a moral failing – and about a fifth said it was both.
Viewing it as a moral failing, said the firm’s president Curtis Wilkerson, “lends itself to people believing more likely that people can just stop if they want to, it’s a choice at that point, as opposed to a medical condition. That alters the conversation about what the treatment options are, and it alters the conversation about how society and government and the voters feel that addiction should be dealt with.”
About two-thirds of voters said they know someone who’s suffering or has suffered from addiction to opioids, up from half when Orion asked that question two years ago.
The firm, which has offices in Charleston and Buckhannon, polled 365 likely West Virginia voters between Friday, Jan. 12, and Monday, Jan. 15, via cellphone or landline. Among the respondents, 46 percent identified as Democrat, 34 percent were Republican and 20 percent were Independent, a breakdown Mr. Wilkerson said generally reflects voter registration in the state.
Half of those polled said opioid and heroin addiction should be addressed primarily through medically-assisted treatments, while a third favored an abstinence-only model. And nearly three-quarters of voters said they would support providing free long-term birth control to women addicted to opioids. State Senate Finance Chairman Craig Blair, a Republican from Berkeley County, has floated that controversial idea as one way to tackle the problem.
More than half of those polled said the state’s opioid epidemic has gotten worst and about a third said it’s stayed the same. Only 5 percent said they thought it had improved.
“The West Virginia legislature, the United States Congress and a number of elected officials have been working toward dealing with the opioid epidemic for the last several years, and so the question is, ‘Do voters feel those efforts are working?’ and the answer was no,” Mr. Wilkerson said.
Pollsters also asked voters’ thoughts on teacher compensation and co-tenancy, which allows companies to drill a well and drain the gas in a given area if the owners of 51 percent of the mineral rights agree, and recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and over. West Virginians seem to have warmed to the latter idea: About a third were for it, and just over 60 percent were against it. A year ago, those figures were a quarter and 70 percent, respectively.
State health officials are proposing a multifaceted plan for confronting the drug crisis killing hundreds of West Virginians each year, one that would require action by everyone from lawmakers to doctors to judges to emergency responders to the general public.
Some of the changes might be possible to make administratively, but much of the work will depend on legislative approval.
“We have to stop this terrible drug epidemic. We have to,” Gov. Jim Justice said in his address to state lawmakers Wednesday night. “If we don’t it will cannibalize us.”
A dozen state senators that day had introduced legislation to generally limit initial doctor and dentist prescriptions of opiates for acute, or short-term, pain to seven days. The bill would limit those painkiller prescriptions to three days for minors and for emergency-room outpatients.
These and many other changes are recommended in a plan released Thursday by a panel of public health experts from West Virginia and Johns Hopkins University with state agency and public input. They’re taking additional comments for another week.
This plan recommends limiting initial opioid prescriptions, increasing oversight to stop inappropriate painkiller prescribing, and requiring all emergency responders to carry overdose antidotes. It also calls for expanding public awareness that addiction is a treatable disease, increasing diversion of criminal drug case defendants to treatment programs and increasing treatment options for all patients.
The report further calls for expanding programs to support families with someone addicted, expanding peer-based support and better access to contraceptives for people with drug disorders.
More than 30,000 West Virginians are already in drug treatment. The state has the nation’s highest drug overdose death rate, fueled by prescription painkillers.
Overdose deaths increased from 735 in 2015 to a record 884 statewide in 2016, and the toll could be rising still.
“Mixtures of opioids and stimulants such as amphetamines, methamphetamines, and cocaine are surging in 2017,” the panel wrote. “It appears likely there may be over 1,000 overdose deaths in West Virginia in 2017.”
Most involved opioids. While steady increases from 212 fatal overdoses in 2001 were initially driven by pharmaceuticals, the authors noted a shift to illicit heroin that began in 2012 has since increased with more potent fentanyl added to street drugs.
By examining hundreds of deaths, the Bureau of Public Health found that 81 percent had interacted with health systems, 56 percent had been jailed, and 71 percent were on Medicaid. Males were twice as likely to die from overdoses as females.
The report calls for mandatory hospital and emergency responder reporting of non-fatal overdoses, so that outreach can be arranged.
“This is a public health crisis of the highest order,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, who heads the bureau.
Health officials in West Virginia say a plan to combat the state’s opioid crisis has been released for public comment.
The Department of Health and Human Resources released the response plan Thursday. It was prepared by a panel of public health experts after a review of public comments, a public meeting on Dec. 21 and input from state agencies.
Public comments will be accepted through Jan. 19 at bphcommunications@wv.gov.
The plan eventually will be presented to Gov. Jim Justice and the state Legislature. It focus on six areas, including prevention, early intervention, treatment, overdose reversal and recovery.
Gov. Justice’s second State of the State made full use of several props, two whiteboards and his entire girls’ basketball team.
Justice also laid out what he thought was really important in his speech. Here are two themes I heard: finally turning the corner on the opioid epidemic, and helping young people find technical and vocational careers.
We must turn the corner on the opioid epidemic: “The first thing we got to do is just this. We have to stop this terrible drug epidemic. We have to. If we don’t, it will cannibalize us.”
Young people need to know there are great jobs that require specialized training, not a four-year bachelors’ degree: “If you’re a student that wants to go into the trades…other kids may look down on you a little bit. It’s not fair. It’s not right. Some way we have got to let those kids know that we got to have them.”
Here at WVPB, we’ve been talking about how we can educate West Virginians around these two issues: workforce development and fighting opioid addiction. The good news is, we’ve recently received a major grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for workforce development, called “American Graduate.” We’ll be working with partners to develop videos to educate young people, their parents, and educators about great careers that don’t require a four-year degree – and how to prepare for them.
And on the opioid epidemic, we’re working with experts to determine how we can help. What messages can WVPB create to educate the public and decrease the number of people dying from overdoses? Other states have turned the corner on this epidemic – WVPB wants to make 2018 the year West Virginia starts to improve.
If you have ideas for how we can prepare young people for careers, and how we can begin to win the fight against opioid addiction, let me know! I’m at sfinn@wvpublic.org.
