Team effort fights opioids

Cape Cod Times

State’s Narcan agreement shows the battle is on

Earlier this month, Attorney General Maura Healey announced that her office had reached an agreement with Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the opioid overdose-reversing drug Narcan. The company agreed to pay $325,000 into the state’s Municipal Naloxone Bulk Purchase Trust Fund after Healey sent a letter to Amphastar executives in February asking why the company hiked its prices – in some cases from $20 to over $40 per dose – in the months after then-Gov. Deval Patrick declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency in Massachusetts.

The agreement also included terms that give the state a bulk purchase rate of $33 per dose of Narcan to be distributed through the Department of Public Health.

When Healey ran for attorney general in 2014, she came to the Times’ editorial board and promised that the opioid epidemic would be a priority. In December, a month after she won office, advocates asked her to investigate the price inflation of Narcan. She listened to police, fire officials and legislators, mothers and fathers who asked her to do the same. Bravo, Atty. Gen. Healey.

But she didn’t do it alone.

For too long, too many officials at every level of government either ignored or were ignorant of the deadly opioid epidemic that’s buried tens of thousands of Americans in early graves. For nearly a decade, pleas from family members to save their loves ones from opioid addiction fell on deaf ears.
Finally, it seems the tide is changing, so today we want to congratulate all those who have been trying to make a difference. Here is an incomplete list:

— Former Gov. Deval Patrick, who declared opioid addiction a public health emergency in 2014, and added $20 million in funding for treatment and prevention.

— Gov. Charlies Baker, who dedicated $27 million to treatment and prevention efforts in the current fiscal year budget. He is also the first governor to also hold the medical community responsible. He said recently that the medical community has not taken this problem seriously enough. He said he will use his power of appointing members to professional medical boards to push for change. Over the next few years, Baker said he will make appointments to the Board of Registration in Medicine and boards overseeing dentists, nurses and other health care professionals. “We’re going to put people who have experience with addiction on all of those boards and start building continuing medical education programs around this stuff,” Baker said.

— Vaira Harik and Beth Albert of Barnstable County Health Human Services, who put together a baseline assessment of addiction on Cape Cod, an ambitious project tracking costs related to addiction in our county.

— Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings, who started using Vivitrol – a medication for the treatment of opioid use disorders – to assist inmates in their return to the community. The medication is only one aspect of a comprehensive substance abuse treatment program at the county jail. Vivitrol helps prevent relapse while the inmate works to make lasting behavioral changes.

— Lisa Murphy of Mashpee, who founded Parents Supporting Parents, which helped jump-start advocacy in a big way.

— The Duffy Health Center in Hyannis, which provides structured and effective medical assisted treatment for addiction, including Suboxone, an important piece in treating opioid addiction. Treatment for those already sick with addiction is as important as prevention of new addicts because if we just prevent new addicts, but ignore those who are sick, heroin dealers are still encouraged to come to the Cape and keep the industry thriving. Expanding Suboxone and methadone have both been recommended by addiction experts.

— State Rep. Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich, who started the dialogue about law enforcement’s changing role in the addiction crisis, from punishment to treatment.

Healey acknowledged the contributions of all who are helping tackle this crisis. It proves that by listening, coordinating, cooperating and acting, Massachusetts can help combat the opioid overdose epidemic and save yet more lives.

We congratulate all involved. With such a dedicated team in place, the real battle to end the opioid addiction epidemic has truly begun.