Pubdate: Thu, 03 Dec 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37

MARYLAND'S ADDICTION PROBLEM

Hogan Needs to Make a Substantial Commitment to Reducing Overdoses

Atask force appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan to look into how Maryland 
can reduce the number of heroin overdose deaths released a 
wide-ranging series of recommendations Tuesday that included both 
expanded access to treatment for addicts and tougher law enforcement 
measures against drug dealers and gangs.

The 11 members of the panel, chaired by Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, 
acknowledged that there are no quick or easy solutions to overdose 
deaths and that a coordinated, multifaceted approach is needed to 
address them. But their final report offered few specifics regarding 
how large an effort will be needed to make a dent in the problem or 
how much it would cost.

Those are both urgent questions, given that heroin overdose deaths in 
the state have reached epidemic proportions. Over the last five years 
the number of such cases has nearly doubled.

This year alone some 340 people have died of heroin overdoses, 
compared to 293 during the same time period in 2014. The spike in 
fatal overdoses appears to be driven by people who formerly were 
addicted to prescription painkillers but turned to street drugs like 
heroin when stricter monitoring of pharmacies and hospital 
dispensaries made those legal medications harder to get. Since the 
heroin they purchase illegally frequently is mixed with other 
chemicals such as fentanyl - a synthetic opioid 30 to 50 times more 
powerful than unadulterated heroin - users can easily suffer a fatal 
overdose before they even realize what is happening.

Earlier this year a Baltimore City task force announced a more than 
$20 million plan to cut overdose deaths in the city. It included 
providing around-the-clock treatment options for addicts, training 
the families of addicts to use the heroin overdose antidote Narcan 
and launching a public health information and education campaign to 
alert people to the dangers of overdose.

Taken together the recommendations of the Hogan task force echo many 
of the city panel's proposals, but the new report doesn't put a 
specific price tag on the effort, and the governor's office stresses 
that Mr. Hogan will make the final decision regarding which 
recommendations, if any, he ultimately chooses to implement.

In August, when the governor's task force last issued a preliminary 
report, Lieutenant Governor Rutherford suggested that regardless of 
what the state decided to do there probably would never be enough 
money to fully address Maryland's heroin overdose problem.

Of the 10 recommendations his panel released at the time, the most 
substantial steps involved the allocation of $800,000 from this 
year's budget to a residential treatment facility in Kent County and 
$300,000 to Baltimore City for a pilot program to hire recovering 
addicts as outreach workers to help get current users into treatment.

Other funds were directed through the Office of Crime Control and 
Prevention to help police agencies to address the heroin problem.

But these were clearly stopgap measures rather than a comprehensive 
effort to address addiction statewide, and the time is coming for the 
governor to put a price tag on his commitment to the issue.

Mr. Rutherford is right that the size of Maryland's heroin problem is 
daunting. But as Baltimore City Health Commissioner Lena Wen has 
pointed out, there are also research-based solutions to combating 
overdose deaths, and state officials need to find ways to support 
them. That's why we hope the governor will take the commission's 
recommendations as a springboard for a truly substantial investment.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom