Getting worse before it gets better: DEA agent predicts deepening opioid epidemic
TEMPE – The opioid crisis in Arizona is likely to grow, a DEA agent warned Wednesday, adding that it’s time to stop playing the blame game.
“For right now, unfortunately, it looks like the problem is getting worse before it gets better,” said Doug Coleman, a special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Phoenix.
Coleman framed the war on opioids as a series of front-line battles that have not yet reached peak casualties.
He was among the law-enforcement and health-care officials who met at the second annual Arizona Opioid Summit to discuss solutions to an epidemic that has led to nearly 900 deaths and 5,810 drug-related overdoses in the state since mid-June, according to state health officials.
Last month, Gov. Doug Ducey signed the Opioid Epidemic Act into law. The measure provides $10 million in treatment for underinsured or uninsured patients, restricts the number of opioids that can be prescribed at one time and protects people from drug-related prosecution if they call for emergency help during a drug overdose.
In his presentation, Coleman praised the new law, saying Arizona is “forward thinking” and “a leader” in the national opioid crisis, which claims an estimated 115 lives every day, according to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doug Coleman, a DEA special agent, said everyone wants someone to blame for the opioid crisis — whether doctors or the drug industry — but that’s a waste of time and effort. He spoke Wednesday to law-enforcement and health-care workers at the second annual Arizona Opioid Summit in Tempe. (Photo by Fortesa Latifi/Cronkite News)
But the connections that led to the epidemic are intertwined and deep, he said, meaning there’s no magic medicine to cure the crisis.
Everyone is trying to figure out who to blame, he said, adding that the true answer is everyone is to blame: Doctors, pharmacists, patients.
“We have to get past the idea of who’s to blame because there’s not one entity that’s to blame,” he said. “We all, as citizens of the United States, demanded these products to ease our pain, and that’s what led to this.”
First, he said, patients demanded opioids to combat their pain. Then, doctors started prescribing more painkillers. In turn, pharmaceutical companies manufactured more drugs. They provided the building blocks for a tragedy.
“We have to stop blaming each other,” Coleman said. “We have to figure out a solution.”
Janice Morrison agrees. Her son, Brett, battled heroin addiction after he was prescribed opioids following a snowboarding accident. She shares Coleman’s concern that the Arizona opioid crisis hasn’t hit its peak.
“Because of shame and stigma and fear of prosecution, people don’t reach out for help,” Morrison said. “It’s just a big mess.”
Morrison thinks law enforcement and government officials need to work with people who have experienced addiction in order to reach solutions.
Most of the conference at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel centered on sessions to discuss law-enforcement work, pain management and treatment options.
In other ways, it was similar to other industry conferences, with a lobby of vendors offering free pens, candy and other giveaways. A rehab center marketed treatment options, such as $11,000 for a six-week outpatient program and $65,000 for a six-week inpatient program.
As this chart shows, the number of opiate Rxs in 2016 was slightly less than in 2006, but the red line indicates the number of overdose deaths. Of course, the way that the CDC collects data in this OD chart is all drug overdose deaths or just opiate OD deaths. We also don’t know how many of the drug OD deaths are in fact SUICIDES.
Why does the chart start in 2006, when many blame Purdue Pharma for the opiate crisis when they introduced it in 1995. Shouldn’t the chart cover the entire time frame that seemingly everyone is blaming ?
As for the old saying goes, figures never lie and liars always figure
Filed under: General Problems
What really pisses me off is when I hear” my son got addicted after an athletic injury and was given some Vicodin and later turned to heroin and over dosed”, ever think that your kid was told by his “friends” you don’t need to see a dr for the stronger stuff and cheaper”. That maybe he just liked it and was getting it at school or parties??? Just how many scripts did you fill for your minor child?? How often did you dispense his meds to him?? Were you home to even monitor the dispensing of meds??
Ever think your kid may have been using heroin already couldn’t get anymore and faked an injury to get some Vicodin cuz he could t stand the withdrawals???
Stop blaming my fucking Dr for treating my fucking pain!!!!! I’m sick of it!!!! I’ve now had to totally change meds altogether cuz insurance won’t cover shit and I can’t afford to spend my hard earned paycheck on half the meds I used to get for a $30 copay a year and a half ago!!!! It took years to get my dosage on point. Good for 10 years and the last 2 years have been nothing but shit!!!
What used to cost me just under $500 a yr out of pocket with insurance has now cost me well over $3000 out of pocket in the last 1.5 yrs. Not to mention the stress, loss of sleep, anxiety, and overall pain as my meds were pulled from me.
I’m a professional who is on call 24/7/365 and I haven’t missed a day of work in over 10 yrs, even with all this shit going on. I gotta adjust everyday to make it work. I need my paycheck. I love my job. But I’m sick of feeling like shit, being undertreated, spending useless money to accommodate the government who is NOT my dr!!!!
Everyone needs to get off their ass and do something!!! Stop whining about what’s ailing tou, we all got pain or we wouldn’t be on this site!!!
Call your reps, make an appt to see them face to face! In wi Gallagher has 5 offices to go and see him. If you can type you can call! You need a ride.?? Ill give you a ride!!! Call and email your local news reporters. They will come to your house. Why let this epidemic get all the attention?? What about our epidemic of non treatment of pain?? Report on that!
The focus needs to be on street drugs and over dosed. Or the mentally ill who doesn’t take their meds!! How many more schools got a get shot up?? How many innocent people have to die?? They need to make those on meds accountable for staying on their meds. That’s where the focus should be. Not in our pain Dr office s, my pharmacy or my insurance.
Before all the drug laws everyday people had unlimited access to opiates yet functioned perfectly well in society, worked and raised families, went to church on Sunday, didn’t commit crimes to get them. Then came all the laws to “protect” from the evil poppy. In came criminals, prisons filled up, families were torn apart. Now with the “opioid crisis” people who once held jobs and raised their families are killing themselves. Why can’t these idiots see that the problem is not pain patients,their providers or even opiates, it’s a tragedy created by politicians wanting to control our every move!
Well well well what do you know Arizona huh isn’t whats his name at the CDC who helped write the opioid guidelines CEO of Phoenix house? Coincidence? I think not.
Just FYI I believe Phoenix House may be in New York, maybe there are others, I believe Phoenix has a meaning relating to “rising from the ashes” or something similar. You and I and many others share the same disdane and total disgust for A. Kolodney though, as I see it he should be charged with RICO violations and fraud and lose his medical license { New York I believe}.
Oh is that what their gonna call forced suicides? Scare everyone that is getting them into thinking its their last time so they take them all and die because living in untreated pain sucks so bad death is preferable? Man i can’t believe this mess!