Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey met with White House Drug Policy Director R. Gil Kerlikoske and former Celtics basketball star Chris Herren in Tauton, Mass. yesterday, to discuss increasing resources for lifesaving solutions to combat recent spikes in overdose deaths. Tauton has seen 64 overdoses and five fatalities since the beginning of this year.

Markey outlined a three-part plan for the opiate drug epidemic including: an expansion of naloxone programs for bystanders and first responders, greater access to addiction treatments, and modernizing America’s treatment system.

“We need to ensure that every community can equip its first responders with lifesaving treatments to prevent overdose deaths and protect those bystanders who are in a position to intervene to save lives,” Said Senator Markey in a statement.

Opioid drug abuse is a current public health issue in Massachusetts and the United States. The city’s public health commissioner, Barbra Ferrer, stated that there has been a 76 percent increase in the rate of heroin overdoses between 2010 and 2012. Also, the rate of prescription drug overdoses has increased 38 percent between 2009 and 2012.

“Science has shown us that drug addiction is a disease of the brain – a disease that can be prevented, treated, and from which one can recover. Substance use disorders, including those driven by opioid use, are a progressive disease,”  stated Kerlikoske similarly. “This demands that we address the issue by emphasizing prevention, treatment, and smart-on-crime approaches that seek to break the cycle of drug use, crime, and addiction.”

Markey introduced legislation of  the “Opioid Overdose Reduction Act” that will create a federal ‘Good Samaritan’ provision to shield people who administer the overdose drug treatment naloxone (Narcan) in an emergency from civil liability.

In 2012, Massachusetts passed a similar law related to naloxone that includes: giving the right to a person acting in good faith to receive a prescription and to possess naloxone in order to administer it to a person experiencing an opiate-related overdose, and that naloxone can be lawfully prescribed and dispensed to a person at risk of experiencing an opiate-related overdose or to a family member, friend or other person in a position to assist the person at risk.

The Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts voted unanimously last Friday during the state meeting to be the first state in the country to equip all fire departments with Narcan according to the President Edward Kelly. Currently, all EMTs and paramedics in Boston carry Narcan.

In late 2010, Quincy, Mass. launched a pilot program that required all first responders to carry the nasal drug Narcan that requires no needles and only a few seconds to assemble. This is the first police department in the nation to require every officer in patrol to carry it according to The Police News. Since the pilot program started, Quincy police have had a 95 percent success rate in reversing overdoses that are opioid related.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health, in December of 2007, launched the Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution prevention program that uses the nasal Narcan in an attempt to reverse the trend. The OEND is targeting parts of the state with the highest number of fatal and non-fatal overdoes.

Since the pilot program began, there hasn’t been a significant decrease of mortalities among opioid-related deaths. The MDPH has continued to develop materials to continue to prevent and respond to victims.

Mayor Marty Walsh on February 11, also announced his plans to address the uptick of opioid use. He called for a series of community-based workshops and for all first responders, including police and firefighters, to carry the anti-overdose medicine according to boston.com.

(Image from The California Report) 

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