nj.com: 7 takeaways from a town hall on opioid abuse prevention
10/1/2017
By Joe Brandt
WASHINGTON TWP. – People in recovery, recovery coaches and addiction experts gathered Wednesday for one of several town hall meeting on opioid abuse being held across the state this year.
The town hall, one of 17 organized by the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey, focused on addressing solutions to the opioid epidemic, which in New Jersey alone killed 1,901 people last year.
Several of the speakers mentioned ways to seek treatment, others mentioned numbers, and some called for policy changes that could help abate the epidemic. A key moment in the meeting was when Gloucester County Freeholder Jim Jefferson expressed disappointment that the federal government had not involved itself more in addressing the crisis.
"I can't think of a more dire situation," he told the crowd of about 60. "It's long overdue that the federal government invests in this issue."
In the entirety of 2016, there were 88 opioid overdose deaths in Gloucester County, and 121 total in Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland counties in 2015.
So far in 2017, 96 people have died from opioid overdoses in Gloucester County.
In terms of the "drug harm index" compiled by the New Jersey State Police, Atlantic, Camden, Cumberland and Cape May counties are hurting the most, respectively, said William Lynch, a clinical staff pharmacist at Kennedy Health System. While Essex County ranks high because of its population, these four South Jersey counties have the most overdoses per capita, he said.
The drug, which sells to the insured for about $40, can revive someone in the throes of an overdose. It can be administered via nasal spray or syringe. Throughout the meeting, panelists advocated for keeping it handy.
"If you get an opioid prescription, get naloxone," Lynch said. "Just say it's for you ... when it's administered, it doesn't matter who it was prescribed to."
Sgt. Danielle LoRusso from the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said naloxone had been administered 156 times in the county so far this year, and that all police departments in the county now carry it.
The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey offers courses on how to administer naloxone, and those often fill up quickly, said the town hall moderator, Matthew Rudd.
If you have to administer naloxone to someone who has overdosed, make sure to stay with them. If they overdosed on a long-release drug like oxycodone, the naloxone could wear off while the opioid is still affecting them, and they could return to their overdose state.
Lynch ran through a slideshow and showed a photo of vials of fatal doses of heroin and fentanyl. The vial of heroin was about a third full; the vial of fentanyl contained only a few crystals.
"We have a fentanyl problem now," Lynch said of the drug that is sometimes "laced" into heroin. "We're past heroin."
The number of fentanyl-related deaths rose 2,000 percent since 2013. It rose to the No. 2 cause of fatal drug overdoses in the state last year, behind heroin and more than cocaine.
Candice Carter, coordinator for the Gloucester Regional Addictive Substances Prevention Coalition (GRASP) and one of the panelists, was worried when her daughter suffered a sports injury. She wondered: would doctors prescribe painkillers?
Luckily, it was only an ankle sprain, but her anecdote sparked a conversation about proper disposal of pain medication.
Panelists noted that the elderly are especially vulnerable to addiction as they are more likely to be prescribed pain medication. And when they pass away, their medicine cabinets can be targets for theft.
After the event, attendees could grab Deterra, a drug deactivation pouch that helps dispose of prescriptions. Simply add the prescriptions to the pouch, add water, shake it up, and the drugs dissolve. This helps keep them out of the waterways and away from what could otherwise trigger addiction.
"Often when we talk about addiction right now, in 2017, we talk about death," said Alyssa Fountain, a community outreach specialist for Recovery Centers of America. It's important to "share stories of recovery," she said, to show that there is hope and that emerging from addiction is possible.
Fountain would know; she is in long-term recovery, having not touched drugs or alcohol since November 1, 2009. Her declaration drew applause and cheers from the crowd.
"One of the biggest barriers to treatment is a lack of hope," she said.
A list of resources to help you or someone you know is available here.
The partnership is hosting 11 more meetings. These four are planned:
- Warren County – Warren County Community College – September 29, 2017
- Camden County – Cherry Hill Public Library – October 3, 2017
- Somerset County – Bernards High School, Performing Arts Center – October 10, 2017
- Burlington County – Rowan College at Burlington County – Mount Laurel Campus – October 26, 2017