Pubdate: Mon, 09 May 2016
Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Press Democrat
Contact:  http://www.pressdemocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Martin Espinoza

ASSEMBLYMAN JIM WOOD PUSHES FOR STATE TASK FORCE TO TACKLE OPIOID PROBLEM

A dentist by profession, Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, knows a 
thing or two about pain and how to relieve it.

So when he heard that Americans quadrupled their consumption of 
painkillers between 1999 and 2013, without a similar increase in 
medical reasons, he knew something was out of whack.

However, he said, tackling the epidemic of overuse and abuse of 
prescription opioids is a complicated problem, one that has no 
"silver bullet" and will involve working with a number of different 
health care-related and law enforcement groups and agencies.

"I've kind of come to the conclusion that it's an extremely 
complicated issue and there are many factors into how people become 
addicted, and how that addiction plays out in the long run," Wood said.

With the aim of bringing together key groups and agencies, Wood is 
now pushing for the creation of a legislative task force with the 
authority to quickly come up with statewide strategies and policies 
for curbing the use and misuse of painkillers.

The task force would include medical providers, patient advocates and 
representatives of pharmaceutical companies, health plans and law enforcement.

"It's about getting all the stakeholders at the table and coming up 
with a plan," he said. "Over-prescription is a component. Part of it 
is prescribing patterns, part of it is the amount, part of it is we 
have been pretty permissive about how we prescribe certain 
medications. It's possible that something that isn't a narcotic may 
serve just as well."

If approved by the governor later this year, Wood's bill, AB 1977, 
would create a task force that could begin work as early as next 
year. The logistics are still being worked out, Wood said, though the 
bill was approved by the Assembly Health Committee last week.

Citing statewide statistics, Wood said the opioid crisis is 
particularly acute among young people, with nearly 1.5 million teens 
and young adults estimated to use painkillers every year. He said the 
estimated cost of the nation's opioid epidemic is about $56 billion 
in lost productivity and criminal and health care costs.

According to a recent report by the Sonoma County Department of 
Health Services, one in four Sonoma County residents had an opioid 
prescription in 2014.

The report said that hydrocodone - the most widely prescribed opioid 
in Sonoma County, often sold as Vicodin - accounted for 57 percent of 
the 459,000 opioid prescriptions filled at local pharmacies, while 
oxycodone, often sold as Percocet, made up 18 percent of local prescriptions.

In 2014, there were 191 hospitalizations in Sonoma County due to 
unintentional drug poisoning, of which 57 were for mostly 
pharmaceutical opioids, the report said. About 44 county residents 
die each year of unintentional drug overdoses.

North of Sonoma County, the state's highest rate of drug-induced 
deaths was found in Lake County. With a population of about 65,000 
residents in 2012, an average of 29 people died annually between 2011 
and 2013, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.

Humboldt County, with a 2012 population of nearly 135,000, had an 
average of 51 fatal overdoses during the same period.

By contrast, Sonoma County, with a population of nearly half a 
million residents, had an average of 50 people die each year. Wood's 
2nd Assembly district includes both Sonoma and Humboldt counties.

Sonoma County Health Officer Karen Milman said she and other health 
care officials and professionals would pay close attention to 
whatever policies come out of the task force, should it be approved. 
She said such a body would provide more "authority" for statewide strategies.

Milman said the county is already tracking the work of the state 
Department of Public Health's Prescription Opioid Misuse and Overdose 
Prevention Workgroup, which was formed in spring 2014.

That group includes representatives from the state Department of 
Health Care Services, Department of Justice and Department of 
Consumer Affairs, including the California State Board of Pharmacy, 
the Medical Board of California, the Dental Board of California and 
the Board of Nursing.

Also, Sonoma County is one of 16 opioid safety coalitions that have 
been formed through grant sponsorship from the California Health Care 
Foundation.

"We already have a coalition working on prescribing and safe 
pain-management guidelines," Milman said. "It's complex and the goal 
is to get agreement from health care providers across the county, 
simultaneously working on guidelines for safe pain management for 
primary care, as well in the emergency department."

Wood said he hoped the legislative task force would add a sense of 
urgency to such changes.

"They've been working on this for a number of years," he said. "I 
think we need to jump-start the process, quite frankly."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom