President Obama traveled to West Virginia Wednesday to announce new federal and state government efforts created to fight opiate drug abuse from a new angle.
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New regulations have been drafted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to update an existing law that pertains to medical providers authorized to prescribe buprenorphine, a drug used in treatment for addiction, and how many patients needing such prescriptions may be allowed under one provider’s care.
Dixon says parents need to educate themselves on the problem.
“They’re wonderful girls, but they’re teenagers. They do a few… things”, he said.
Obama referenced his book, in which he wrote about his drug use as a young man. “And for a long time and what continues to this day is a lack of – a tremendous amount of misunderstanding about these drugs and particularly within our criminal justice system”, drug czar Michael Botticelli said in a briefing with reporters.
The President focused part of his speech and the ensuing discussion on the explosion of heroin use across the country.
“This is an illness, and we have to treat it as such”, Obama said, to applause.
“There’s been a tremendous public awareness campaign that has helped immensely to get people aware of the magnitude of this problem and to seek solutions”, Delegate Matt Rohrbach (R) of Cabell told the Charleston Gazette-Mail last week.
President Barack Obama’s visit to the Mountain State may have been in Charleston, but communities across the state are still talking about it.
The president made those remarks after listening to the stories of the mother of an addict, a health officer and a police chief in front of an audience of about 200 people at the East End Family Resource Center.
“West Virginia understands this better than anybody”, Obama said, noting that the state is home to the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States.
“As their use has increased”, he said, “so has the misuse”.
Still, the conservative Democrat said he believes Obama’s attempt to highlight drug abuse would be welcome in a state where too many feel they’re fighting a hidden war. Data released this year from the organization found that drug poisoning deaths had risen six percent from 2012 to 2013 and that heroin deaths had increased by almost 40 percent. “It’s not somebody else’s kids, it’s our kids; it’s not somebody else’s neighborhood, it’s our neighborhood”.
Train their health care providers on how to properly prescribe opioids (Mufson/Zezima, Washington Post, 10/21).
The new federal government initiative will work in partnership with dozens of groups representing “providers” – doctors and other health care staff who are gatekeepers for prescription narcotic painkillers.
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“A couple of years ago we had a doubling in Jefferson Parish of opioid deaths, and that actually mirrors the country”, Cvitanovich said. Foster said he agrees with Obama’s approach of treating, rather than incarcerating, addicts. “This is sad to say – the truth is if you have opioid addiction, your chances of getting into MAT are not very good”, he said. “It can affect the richest of the rich or the poorest of the poor”. But the new rules from the Obama administration will likely have a limited effect, since states regulate the practice of medicine and just ten states require doctors to get specialized training for prescribing opioids. Over the past five years, almost 2,900 West Virginians have overdosed on prescription painkillers or heroin. Obama talked about America’s prescription drug abuse problem and the growing heroin epidemic.
