Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Makes the Fight Against Opioid Addiction and Overdose a Priority

Plan includes supporting Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015, securing a rebate on Narcan kits and focusing national meeting of attorneys general on opioid overdose and addiction

Rhode Island’s opioid overdose crisis is on the minds of many. Families, addiction treatment providers, health officials, law enforcement, people in recovery and lawmakers have spent countless hours advocating for recovery support and building programs that make treatment more accessible. The number of deaths due to accidental overdose climbed to numbers in the last year that signaled a public health and safety concern.

Add Rhode Island’s Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin to that list. At a press conference on September 29 held at The Providence Center, the state’s leading provider of mental health and addiction treatment services, Kilmartin outlined three initiatives he is spearheading to combat opioid overdose.

Kilmartin leads a movement among attorneys general to support the passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015. He and his colleagues from 37 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to the leadership of the Committee on the Judiciary for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives urging the passage of this critical act.

RI Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is the lead sponsor of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015 that aims to:

• Expand prevention and educational efforts, particularly aimed at teens, parents and other caregivers and aging populations, to prevent the abuse of opioids and heroin and to promote treatment and recovery;
• Expand the availability of naloxone (Narcan) to law enforcement agencies and other first responders to help in the reversal of overdoses to save lives;
• Expand resources to identify and treat incarcerated individuals suffering from addiction disorders promptly by collaborating with criminal justice stakeholders and by providing evidence-based treatment;
• Expand disposal sites for unwanted prescription medications to keep them out of the hands of children and adolescents;
• Launch evidence-based opioid and heroin treatment and intervention programs to assist in treatment and recovery throughout the country; and
• Strengthen prescription drug monitoring programs to help states monitor and track prescription drug diversion and to help at-risk individuals access services.
  
  

“We must move beyond simple responses to drug trends and emerging threats, and concentrate on improving addiction treatment nationwide,” Kilmartin said. “Research shows that the best way to address this challenge in through a strategy that includes prevention, law enforcement, reduction of overdose deaths, evidence-based treatment and support for those in, or seeking, recovery.”

The Providence Center has several programs in place to address opioid addiction and overdose. AnchorED dispatches recovery coaches to overdose survivors in emergency departments, and recovery community centers located inside the Department of Corrections connect recovery supports to offenders.

“We might not be able to win the entire war on drugs, but we can minimize the damage,” said Tommy Joyce, associate director of The Providence Center’s Anchor Recovery Community Center. “This Act will help us continue the work we have in place to make treatment more accessible to people who need it.”

Kilmartin also announced an agreement reached between his office and Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc., manufacturer of the overdose reversal drug naloxone, to offer a rebate for each kit purchased in Rhode Island by state agencies, municipal governments, law enforcement agencies, emergency medical services agencies or non-profit community-based programs. While the use of Narcan in Rhode Island increased, the cost followed suit. In 2014, emergency medical providers administered 1,600 doses. Between January 2014 and May 2015, agencies have distributed 2,500 doses to the community. In the last year, the cost of a Narcan kit more than doubled form $17 to $39.

Attorney General Kilmartin also named the opioid addiction and overdose crisis as the topic for the upcoming meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General Eastern Region meeting next month.

“If we are going to be successful in ending this crisis, prevention must play a very important role,” Kilmartin said. “We need to take care of those who are in the recovery process, and we need to educate people so they don’t start down the path of abuse and addiction."