HHS launches program to reduce opioid overdoses by 40% in three years

The effort of $ 353 million will test the idea that the best approaches to fight the drug crisis are well known but poorly implemented and poorly coordinated. It will use a comprehensive strategy in every community that encourages the involvement of physicians, treatment providers, law enforcement, courts, churches and even housing providers – an approach that has worked in a few places.

Critics have long complained, for example, that even the small portion of drug addicts who are able to find treatment are often abandoned when seeking employment, housing or ongoing counseling and social support. These problems are among the many factors that lead to repeated relapses.

Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar instead suggested a system whereby an arrested user could be transferred from the police to a drug treatment court for treatment and then to organizations providing the drug. housing, advice and other forms of assistance.

"We must not be intimidated by the scale and scale of this challenge, "said Azar at a press conference Thursday. "We can do it now."

The money will come from the National Institutes of Health's long-term "Contribute to Overcoming Drug Abuse" initiative and will go to the University of Kentucky ($ 87 million); Boston Medical Center ($ 89 million); Columbia University ($ 86 million) and Ohio State University ($ 65.9 million). Each university will work with at least 15 cities or counties in its state to design programs and evaluate how they work.

RTI International, a non-profit research institute in North Carolina, received $ 25.5 million for the pooling and coordination of data generated for research.

Opioid overdoses have killed 47,600 people in 2017, with illegal fentanyl now being the biggest contributor to the worst drug crisis in US history. More than 400,000 people have succumbed to an overdose of narcotics, heroin and prescription fentanyl since 1999. More than 2 million Americans suffer from a disorder of use. # 39; opioids.

Governments and private groups have finally begun to tackle the many facets of the epidemic by distributing the antidote to overdose, naloxone, by tightening the restrictions on painkillers and prescriptions. by restricting the import of fentanyl from abroad.

But even now, it remains difficult for users to find medically assisted treatment with buprenorphine, methadone or naltrexone, which controls cravings and is the accepted standard of care. The National Academy of Sciences concluded last month that most people with opioid use disorder were receiving no treatment and that only a fraction of those who had access to these drugs.

Dayton, Ohio, which had one of the highest overdose mortality rates in the country in 2017, was cited as a place where increased access to treatment and increased user support resulted in a sharp drop in the number of deaths in 2018.

At the press conference on Thursday, Alex Elswick, 28, a heroin addict, described his journey towards sobriety, which included homelessness in places such as Dayton, the prison and five prison programs. treatment for inpatients.

Elswick, who says he does not use medically assisted treatment, is currently working on a doctorate at the University of Kentucky. He stated that he "had barely managed to survive" and that he was relapsing often, partly because of lack of support every time he was able to give up the drug.

At 28, he said, "I attended more funerals than weddings. This is not how the family's life cycle should be. "

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