Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2012
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2012 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Grant Smith
Note: Grant Smith is the federal policy coordinator for the Drug 
Policy Alliance.

DRUG OVERDOSE: THE QUIET EPIDEMIC

Violent Crime Gets the Headlines, but We Need to Do More to Prevent 
Unnecessary Substance-Abuse Deaths

For all the attention that violent crime gets in the media, the 
average American is much more likely to die from another largely 
preventable tragedy. Fatal drug overdoses have risen sharply in 
recent years. In Congress this month, Maryland Rep. Donna F. Edwards 
introduced bipartisan legislation known as the Stop Overdose Stat 
(S.O.S.) Act to help reverse this national trend.

Every year, the lives of more than 28,000 Americans and more than 200 
Baltimore City residents are claimed by a drug overdose. In 
Baltimore, heroin is responsible for more than 60 percent of fatal 
overdose cases, but overdoses from prescription medications used to 
treat pain have become increasingly commonplace in many other parts 
of the country.

People overdose for a variety of reasons. Consider the following scenarios:

*A father of two severely injures his back on the job, and his 
primary care physician prescribes one dose per day of an opioid pain 
medication. But the patient experiences significant pain before his 
next dose is due and makes a fatal decision that it won't hurt to 
double up his dose.

*A stay-at-home mother was once prescribed Percocet for a painful 
injury but continued using the drug as a way of coping with the 
stressors of life. After deciding she wants to stop, she seeks 
treatment and abstains. Several months later, however, a traumatic 
event triggers her desire for more Percocet, and she mistakenly takes 
the same dose she did before her period of abstinence even though her 
body doesn't have the same tolerance to the drug.

*Three months after a young woman returns home from detox, her mother 
discovers her passed out on her bed. Her breathing is shallow, and 
her skin is ashen. She has relapsed and is overdosing.

Fortunately, there are highly effective, low-cost interventions that 
can help prevent overdoses from becoming fatal. Health officials in 
Baltimore and a growing number of places are training people to 
prevent fatal overdoses in their communities through overdose 
prevention programs to recognize the symptoms of overdose and to 
properly administer first aid and naloxone. Naloxone greatly reduces 
mortality from overdoses caused by heroin, oxycodone and other opioid drugs.

Recently, the American Medical Association declared its support for 
overdose prevention programs, and earlier this year the Food and Drug 
Administration held a workshop to discuss making naloxone more available.

Trained individuals are more likely to know how to help a person 
survive an overdose. Take, for example, the illustration of the 
mother finding her daughter unconscious from a heroin overdose. 
Having been trained on how to recognize and respond, her mother 
immediately calls 911 and begins giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. 
The excess heroin is suppressing breathing, and she needs oxygen 
fast. Her mother then remembers the naloxone. In each nostril, she 
sprays the naloxone that was provided to her by the overdose 
prevention program. Within a couple minutes, her daughter awakes.

An overdose prevention program operated by the Baltimore City Health 
Department has documented more than 220 naloxone rescues and has been 
credited with contributing to an ongoing, citywide decline in heroin 
overdose deaths across the city. Nationwide, a report by the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention credits these programs with saving 
more than 10,000 lives. Overdose prevention programs are also thought 
to reduce health care costs that result when failure to secure 
medical intervention during an overdose results in coma and other 
serious complications.

Unfortunately, most communities across Maryland and elsewhere do not 
yet have these programs in place. Ms. Edwards has shown leadership by 
introducing the S.O.S. Act, and Congress should follow her example by 
swiftly passing this bill to make funding available to overdose 
prevention programs.

On Friday, vigils will be held worldwide to mark Overdose Awareness 
Day, which provides parents, family members and others affected by an 
overdose with a moment to unite and grieve the loss of a loved one. 
The pressure for government and health officials to bring an end to 
this epidemic will not cease until the tools to prevent deaths are in 
every community and being put to good use.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom