Pubdate: Mon, 09 May 2016 Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA) Copyright: 2016 The Press Democrat Contact: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348 Author: Martin Espinoza ASSEMBLYMAN JIM WOOD PUSHES FOR STATE TASK FORCE TO TACKLE OPIOID PROBLEM A dentist by profession, Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, knows a thing or two about pain and how to relieve it. So when he heard that Americans quadrupled their consumption of painkillers between 1999 and 2013, without a similar increase in medical reasons, he knew something was out of whack. However, he said, tackling the epidemic of overuse and abuse of prescription opioids is a complicated problem, one that has no "silver bullet" and will involve working with a number of different health care-related and law enforcement groups and agencies. "I've kind of come to the conclusion that it's an extremely complicated issue and there are many factors into how people become addicted, and how that addiction plays out in the long run," Wood said. With the aim of bringing together key groups and agencies, Wood is now pushing for the creation of a legislative task force with the authority to quickly come up with statewide strategies and policies for curbing the use and misuse of painkillers. The task force would include medical providers, patient advocates and representatives of pharmaceutical companies, health plans and law enforcement. "It's about getting all the stakeholders at the table and coming up with a plan," he said. "Over-prescription is a component. Part of it is prescribing patterns, part of it is the amount, part of it is we have been pretty permissive about how we prescribe certain medications. It's possible that something that isn't a narcotic may serve just as well." If approved by the governor later this year, Wood's bill, AB 1977, would create a task force that could begin work as early as next year. The logistics are still being worked out, Wood said, though the bill was approved by the Assembly Health Committee last week. Citing statewide statistics, Wood said the opioid crisis is particularly acute among young people, with nearly 1.5 million teens and young adults estimated to use painkillers every year. He said the estimated cost of the nation's opioid epidemic is about $56 billion in lost productivity and criminal and health care costs. According to a recent report by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, one in four Sonoma County residents had an opioid prescription in 2014. The report said that hydrocodone - the most widely prescribed opioid in Sonoma County, often sold as Vicodin - accounted for 57 percent of the 459,000 opioid prescriptions filled at local pharmacies, while oxycodone, often sold as Percocet, made up 18 percent of local prescriptions. In 2014, there were 191 hospitalizations in Sonoma County due to unintentional drug poisoning, of which 57 were for mostly pharmaceutical opioids, the report said. About 44 county residents die each year of unintentional drug overdoses. North of Sonoma County, the state's highest rate of drug-induced deaths was found in Lake County. With a population of about 65,000 residents in 2012, an average of 29 people died annually between 2011 and 2013, according to data from the California Department of Public Health. Humboldt County, with a 2012 population of nearly 135,000, had an average of 51 fatal overdoses during the same period. By contrast, Sonoma County, with a population of nearly half a million residents, had an average of 50 people die each year. Wood's 2nd Assembly district includes both Sonoma and Humboldt counties. Sonoma County Health Officer Karen Milman said she and other health care officials and professionals would pay close attention to whatever policies come out of the task force, should it be approved. She said such a body would provide more "authority" for statewide strategies. Milman said the county is already tracking the work of the state Department of Public Health's Prescription Opioid Misuse and Overdose Prevention Workgroup, which was formed in spring 2014. That group includes representatives from the state Department of Health Care Services, Department of Justice and Department of Consumer Affairs, including the California State Board of Pharmacy, the Medical Board of California, the Dental Board of California and the Board of Nursing. Also, Sonoma County is one of 16 opioid safety coalitions that have been formed through grant sponsorship from the California Health Care Foundation. "We already have a coalition working on prescribing and safe pain-management guidelines," Milman said. "It's complex and the goal is to get agreement from health care providers across the county, simultaneously working on guidelines for safe pain management for primary care, as well in the emergency department." Wood said he hoped the legislative task force would add a sense of urgency to such changes. "They've been working on this for a number of years," he said. "I think we need to jump-start the process, quite frankly." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom