State lawmakers capped a good year of fighting addiction last month by passing a measure that requires Ohio school districts to teach the dangers of prescription opioids in their health curricula.
The bill was one of several anti-addiction initiatives — spearheaded largely by state Rep. Robert Sprague (R., Findlay) — that included mandating more uniform drug addiction treatment statewide, and setting new prescriber guidelines that have sharply reduced dangerously high dosages of potent painkillers such as Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin.
Click here to read more Blade editorials
In another encouraging sign for the state’s top public health problem, Gov. John Kasich is preparing to roll out new efforts in the year-old “Start Talking!” program, a youth drug prevention initiative. A new component of the program, “Start Talking! BIZ,” will help Ohio businesses promote drug-free workplaces and wellness by offering employers free videos, email tips, and other educational tools for their employees.
Still, an estimated 200,000 Ohioans remain addicted to heroin and other opioids; fatal heroin-related overdoses, in this region and around the state, continue to rise. Final figures for 2014 will probably show that nearly 150 people in the Toledo area died of heroin-related overdoses — nearly four times as many as were recorded two years ago.
Representative Sprague told The Blade’s editorial page that he will continue to focus on opioid addiction in 2015. So should the rest of the General Assembly.
Ohio must find ways to close enormous treatment gaps across the state. It now provides treatment for as few as one in 10 of those who need it, and perhaps one in three of those who seek it. Closing these gaps will require the state — and local mental health and addiction boards — to reduce the waiting periods for addicts who seek medication-assisted treatment, including Suboxone and Vivitrol.
Mr. Sprague also will promote a bill that would enable more Ohioans to obtain Naloxone kits, which can reverse the effects of an overdose. Such kits have already saved dozens, maybe hundreds, of lives in Ohio.
The bill should permit citizens with friends or family members who struggle with an opioid addiction to obtain the drug, commercially known as Narcan, from pharmacies without a physician’s prescription. Such a change would cost the state practically nothing and could save numerous lives. The state also should help equip emergency responders and police officers statewide with these life-saving kits, which cost roughly $50 each.
Also on Mr. Sprague’s agenda is restricting access in Ohio to Zohydro — a powerful painkiller approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2013 — at least until it is available in a tamper-resistant formula. The drug has aggravated the risks of addiction and sent the wrong message to doctors and other prescribers, many of whom still don’t fully understand addiction.
Last year, Mr. Sprague introduced a bill, which died in committee, that would have effectively made Zohydro illegal in Ohio. Given the FDA’s pre-emptive authority, the measure would face constitutional challenges.
In 2014, Mr. Kasich and lawmakers generally responded to the state’s epidemic of addiction in an effective and refreshingly bipartisan manner. Even so, with fatal heroin-related overdoses continuing to rise, lawmakers cannot rest.
In making life-saving Narcan kits widely available, among other measures, the General Assembly can build on the considerable progress it has made over the past year.
First Published January 19, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
