State takes a good first step toward opioid addiction
Published June 23, 2017
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, June 21, 2017.
We’re grateful that the General Assembly has taken significant steps to deal with this state’s pervasive opioid-abuse epidemic. It appears our lawmakers have listened carefully to the experts. The core of the approach is simple: Drug abuse is an illness and it needs to be treated. In the past, our anti-drug efforts targeted addiction as a crime, and we’ve learned the hard way that locking up addicts only puts their drug use on hold for a while. It attacks the symptoms, not the illness.
The state budget that is nearing final approval in the General Assembly this week contains several innovative approaches to treating opioid addiction. One measure seeks to stop the addiction before it can start, trying to prevent the widespread overprescribing of opioid medications that can leave users addicted. They start out treating legitimate medical pain but end up hooking the users, who later end up on the streets seeking more opioids when their prescriptions runs out.
State Rep. Gregory Murphy of Greenville, a surgeon who is the prime sponsor of the prevention legislation, says, “Most of these people are not criminals by intent. They’re hooked. They’re addicts. ... The recidivism is tremendously high. So we’re trying to treat this as it should be: As a disease.”
Lawmakers have also appropriated $5 million a year for the next two years for opioid and substance abuse treatment programs around the state. The money comes from a $31.2 million federal grand for treatment and recovery services. Some of that money is expected to get to Fayetteville.
But here’s the problem: Budgeting $5 million a year for the entire state doesn’t begin to heal our opioid wounds. A recent study by CastLight Health says four North Carolina cities have some of the worst opioid-abuse problems in the nation. Wilmington’s is the worst: The city ranks first, with more than 11.6 percent of its residents classified as opioid abusers. Hickory is 5th, with 9.9 percent of its residents abusing opioid drugs. Jacksonville is 12th, with an 8.2 percent rate. And Fayetteville is 18th, with a 7.9 percent rate.
Now do the math. Fayetteville’s population tops 200,000. Nearly eight percent of that population is about 16,000 people. Add the opioid abusers identified in Wilmington, Hickory and Jacksonville, and we’ve got just short of 39,000 people in need of medical treatment for their addiction. This doesn’t include the likely large numbers we’d find among the millions of people living in North Carolina’s major metropolitan areas. The bottom line: $5 million a year is going to help only a tiny fraction of our opioid abusers. This is going to be a long, hard battle.
But at least it’s the right battle. Medical treatment for our addicted population is our only chance to beat those dreadful statistics and help our addicted population live a good, useful, productive life.
Fayetteville is already miles ahead of other North Carolina cities. Our police officers were the first in the state to begin carrying Naloxone, an overdose-reversing drug. The department was the first in the Southeast and fourth in the country to adopt the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which diverts low-level criminals from prosecution and puts them into addiction treatment and then stable housing and programs to develop their education and job skills. Our Opioid Abuse & Awareness Task Force pairs the city and the Fayetteville Veterans Affairs Medical Center in opioid abuse reduction efforts. Our dedicated drug and veterans courts are key parts of the effort as well.
But there are roadblocks, the biggest of which is our lack of inpatient treatment beds. Ask in almost any community and that’s the most likely missing ingredient in the battle against opioid addiction. That $5 million a year investment in treatment needs to be multiplied by 10, 20 or more if we’re going to succeed.
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved here in the battle against opioids, but we all need to understand that this is really a war that will take many years and deep resources to win. It will be worth every penny.
