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LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – The Federal Drug Administration has approved a new, very powerful opioid drug. Now, some who work closely with opioid addiction and overdoses have concerns.
His name is Dsuvia. It is an opioid 1000 times more powerful than morphine and 10 times more powerful than fetanyl, the opioid commonly observed in overdoses today.
"We are in the midst of an opioid crisis and Lafayette is not immune to that," said Darrell Clase, director of the Tippecanoe Emergency Ambulance Department.
When Jason Padgett was asked from Home With Hope that he thought the FDA would be able to keep Dsuvia out of the hands of those who would use it negatively, his answer was clear.
"No, I do not do it. Never, he says.
"We are regularly called, one to three times a day, to overdose in Tippecanoe County," said Clase.
Padgett works to help those who struggle with this disease throughout the healing process.
"I just got a call on my arrival here, one of my friends overdosed and died last night, it's been three hours in the Lafayette area in the last 72 hours," he said.
It is therefore natural that both worry about the direction that Dsuvia will take.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb issued a statement earlier this week to address some concerns about the drug. He said that it will be used to help our military.
"The FDA has made it a priority to ensure that our soldiers have access to treatment that meets the unique needs of the battlefield," the statement said in part.
But giving injured soldiers could lead to a slippery slope. According to a study conducted in 2014, 15% of veterans regularly used opioids, a rate much higher than that of the general population.
Although Padgett said the drug could fall into the wrong hands, he still saw the other side of the coin.
"As a United States Navy, when I can see that Dsuvia will be used to help people on the battlefield, I have to say that it has some merit," he said. "Are we punishing the rest of the world because people are looking for a chemical leak?"
He said that it was time for people to consider addiction as a social problem.
"People need housing, they must be able to support their families, have a purpose in life," he said. "Until we start teaching parents how to handle their emotional and psychological problems, here's how we fight addiction."
Clase is the one who answers all calls for help and administers recovery medications such as Narcan and Naloxone.
"If a drug of this type came out on the street, it would pose significant problems to the world of EMS," he said.
He said that it was unknown if Narcan and Naloxone would be able to revive someone who had overdosed Dsuvia.
"We already have limited resources to treat these people and adding something to the mix continues to create new challenges," he said. If we could control what is already happening, that would be another story, but in the meantime, I feel we are fighting a losing battle in advance. "
He added that if Dsuvia were to become mainstream, he and his team would be as proactive as possible.
"This is something we would like training on," he said. "I hope this will never happen because it is only supposed to be used in a health care environment, but we never know what can happen."
Padgett said that there was a lot going on in Lafayette to create a positive recovery environment.
"The opioid working group is working to eventually create a recovery community organization. Workforce One helps people get jobs at Caterpillar and SIA, "he said. "These are the kinds of things that change people's lives."
They have recently secured a grant to form a rapid response team, consisting of an emergency medical services specialist and a certified substance abuse recovery person who will go and talk to whoever in the 72 hours who took an overdose and chose not to ask for help anymore.
Padgett said the team should be operational in early December.
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