Sen. Casey pushes drug treatment funding as pill monitoring comes to Pa.
U.S. Attorney David Hickton says the third and final step of combating heroin use is to marry public health policy to law enforcement. He said the first two steps are availability of Narcan and a Good Samaritan law.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey discusses how he’s pushing for $600 million in federal funding to treat the heroin and opioid epidemic.
Ashley Potts, a drug and alcohol counselor, recounted her own story of addiction and staying clean for 10 years.
Rehabilitation director Dr. Neil Capretto was emotional in discussing how he was diagnosed and began treatment for cancer one month ago, but addicts can’t get the same access to quality care.
The “final horizon” of culture change to view heroin and opioid addiction as a public health issue and not solely a law enforcement problem would be made easier if $600 million in federal funds were released, according to Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission director Cheryl Andrews.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., was joined by county, state and federal authorities April 1 at the WDAC as he pushed for final approval of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, which passed the Senate March 10. Officials talked about federal help as one of Pennsylvania’s long-sought anti-narcotics measures – a pill-monitoring program – will finally launch in August.
“This is a problem straight from hell,” Casey said. “States, and particularly this county, have been showing us how to deal with this problem. Now we just need Washington, D.C., to listen to Washington, PA.” Casey said more appropriations for Pennsylvania and other states fighting the heroin epidemic should be a priority for Congress.
The push to provide funding to expand long-term treatment and care for addicts in recovery was highlighted by testimony from Ashley Potts, an addict who became a counselor to help those like herself.
“I’ve been clean for 10 years. When I was in a halfway house for seven months, I was tested to have a sixth-grade education. Now, here I am earning my master’s – the unemployable heroin user. But that came through long-term treatment. I tried outpatient therapy so many times, and it just doesn’t work. You go through withdrawal, and you tell yourself you’re never going to use again, but you need help. My life was worth saving, and so is everybody else,” Potts said.
Potts’ emotional testimony was followed by Gateway Rehabilitation Center director Dr. Neil Capretto and his revelation as he was undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of cancer for the past month.
“I’m getting the best care, and I still have an uphill battle,” Capretto said, pausing to wipe tears, “but I’m afforded this opportunity. I want the same to be there for addicts. These lives matter. Every single one. And I want them to be able to get long-term treatment like I am.”
Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone said the culture war is being won with first responders administering naloxone, or Narcan, to revive overdose victims.
“We’ve had 46 Narcan saves from first responders like police and firefighters since August. The ambulance guys, they’re always doing this. This is just first responders data. This means the message that we use this stuff and everyone carry it is working,” Vittone said, noting there were at least 300 reported overdoses since summer in Washington County, 38 of them fatal.
U.S Attorney David Hickton said the two main aspects of public support – widely available antidotes and Good Samaritan laws to protect those helping victims – will be supplemented and aided by the long-awaited prescription pill-monitoring program that launches in Pennsylvania in August. The state budget impasse prevented the program, which is an attempt to stop doctor- and pill-shopping, from launching in June 2015.
The “Achieving Better Care by Monitoring All Prescriptions,” or ABC-MAP program, was passed as part of Act 191 in 2014. The program will allow physicians, hospitals and pharmacies to monitor all drugs in classes Schedule 2 through 5. The current monitoring allows law enforcement to track Schedule 2 drugs – which includes narcotics – but no health agencies have similar access. The updated program would also require law enforcement to get warrants to check on the information, according to representatives with the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians.
“There’s still privacy protections in place, and add the fact that law enforcement would still need to go before a judge to seek info beyond what they have now (with Schedule 2 drugs) under the new program,” said Brent Ennis, advocacy officer with PAFP.
State Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-North Strabane, a vocal proponent of Act 191, and whose wife works in pharmaceuticals, said Pennsylvania was highlighted as a problem because nearby states have programs that the Keystone State was lacking.
“Right now you can go to 10 different doctors, 10 different pharmacies and pay with cash and there won’t be anyone who knows better. It’s made worse in the fact you can take scripts across state lines, and despite West Virginia and Ohio having similar programs, there’s no communication from (Pennsylvania health agencies) on this, so addicts can still pill shop,” Neuman said.
Pennsylvania and Missouri are currently the only two states without comprehensive pill-monitoring for pharmacies, doctors and hospitals.