Budget to address rural heroin epidemic increased by > 33% this year.

Here’s how the White House plans to address rural America’s struggle with heroin

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/agriculture-secretary-to-lead-effort-addressing-rural-areas-struggles-with-drugs/2016/01/14/2fb61684-bb05-11e5-b682-4bb4dd403c7d_story.html

The White House will announce Friday that President Obama is appointing Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, his Cabinet’s longest-serving member, to lead a new interagency effort focused on addressing rural America’s struggle with heroin and opioid abuse as well as other pressing problems.

The decision to centralize federal decision-making on drug abuse as well as other major problems in rural areas — rising suicide rates, declining physical and mental health, and increased financial stress — comes as addiction to heroin and other opiates has become a crisis in many areas.

In an interview Thursday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said the work Vilsack has done since 2011 chairing the White House Rural Council, a group focused on these areas, has given him “firsthand experience” seeing how substance abuse and poverty have continued to keep Americans in some parts of the country from making headway.

“The whole point is to have the secretary of agriculture look across the [federal government] to see what unique capabilities agencies have to invest in blowing through these obstacles to opportunity in rural communities.”

The Rural Council encompasses 15 departments and multiple agencies, including Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and the Office of National Drug Policy, among others.

 Heroin and prescription opioid drug overdoses kill about 30,000 people a year — heroin-related death rates increased 28 percent from 2013 to 2014 alone — and state, local and federal law enforcement officials have begun to rethink how best to treat addicts who often have trouble getting treatment.

And as opioid addiction has emerged as a more pressing political issue — with presidential candidates from both parties addressing the concerns of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that will cast votes on the parties’ 2016 nominees next month — both GOP and Democratic lawmakers have shown a willingness to expand federal support for tackling it.

The budget agreement struck last month provided the administration with more than $400 million to address the epidemic, an increase of more than $100 million from the previous year. It also cut language barring the use of federal funds for needle-exchange programs, a move that many public health advocates had sought.

Vilsack will unveil the new initiative during a town hall discussion on Friday at Ohio State Universirty in Columbus, where he will be discussing the expansion of the administration’s rural-development efforts in 11 counties experiencing persistent poverty in the part of Appalachia that extends into southern Ohio.

In an interview Thursday, Vilsack said that while any long-term solution to the problem will have to be pursued by the next president, the current administration could help develop a comprehensive strategy and elevate the issue in the American consciousness. Obama held a forum on the subject in October in Charleston, W.Va., a state where more than one-third of the overall injury deaths stem from drug overdoses.

“For me, as presidential candidates talk about this, the importance to me is to bring this issue out of the shadows,” Vilsack said, noting that the “rugged” image of independence often prized in rural America “really makes it hard for people to seek help.”

 Vilsack, whose adoptive mother struggled with addictions to alcohol and prescription medication, said he was optimistic that there could be bipartisan support because it affects so many families.

Matt Chase, executive director of the National Association of Counties, said in an interview that the new initiative is “very timely and much-needed federal attention.” He described the increase in drug and alcohol abuse in rural areas as “symptoms” of an economy where there is more automation and a lower need for workers.

“To me, it really boils down to the lack of economic opportunity in so many of these areas,” he said, adding that although the administration has looked at the issue in the past, Vilsack’s appointment shows “more presidential focus.

In many cases, state and local groups are banding together to try to combat rising overdoses. The National Association of Counties and several other state and local government groups announced Thursday that they have successfully negotiated with drug companies to purchase Narcan nasal spray, which can counteract the effects of an overdose, at a 40 percent discount.

Mark Publicker, past president of the Northern New England Society of Addiction Medicine, said that while he was “utterly pessimistic” that a government task force could have a major impact on the problem, he had been encouraged by some of the efforts the administration had been taking to address the fact that the rural poor are “most stricken by the epidemic and have the least access to treatment.”

“There’s value in identifying the fact that we’re dealing with a multidimensional, complex problem that deserves more than the simple answers that are being floated,” said Publicker, who treats addiction patients in rural Maine.

4 Responses

  1. Isn’t it funny how articles about addiction don’t address the treatment of chronic pain, yet this whole opioid war is fought against pain patients and their doctors? Yes, they want to fight addiction, yet they could care less about the treatment of pain. But we’re talking about opioids, which are used for the treatment of pain. This is a glaring disconnect that’s either ignorant or on purpose.

    And isn’t it funny how every article only gives one side of the story? The media just refuses to include any information or quotes from pain patients. What are they scared of?

    • They are scared of the plutocrats telling the oligarchs to find a way of removing the people at the top of the MSM food chain for not spouting the State’s agenda, an agenda that includes a heaping helping of propaganda so the we, the unwashed masses, know what to think and how to behave. Cynical? Yes. Conspiracy and Paranoia-leaning thinking on my part? Some might say yes, but it doesn’t take to much effort to intuitively see this relationship. The media in this country demonstrated it’s effectiveness in swaying the public mind over a century ago. The media has been co-opted for a few generations now. The cause and effect becomes obvious when one takes the time to study history and timing. One then sees what the policy makers in every generation are up to and how the media has reported the issues. Ours is not the only government in history to have this relationship with the media. One sided tellings of this kind are a major red flag.

  2. This statement (EXCERPT) seems to suggest America needs to hear more hype about heroin. Let’s try leaving out the theory that every heroin addict took an opioid some time in their lives. Since the need for opioids as a life saver for chronic pain patients is nearly NEVER discussed, let’s leave out the issue of linking medically necessary pain meds automatically to the heroin epidemic. A recent article from New England Journal of Medicine, showed heroin usage had already elevated before the initiatives to stop pill mills (which carried the unintended consequences of deprivation of pain care for chronic pain patients) were enacted.

    EXCERPT:
    “the current administration could help develop a comprehensive strategy and elevate the issue in the American consciousness.”

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