opioid - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T15:48:11Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/opioidOcean Ridge: Opioid settlement irks town commissionerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-opioid-settlement-irks-town-commissioner2022-01-05T20:44:22.000Z2022-01-05T20:44:22.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Joe Capozzi</strong></p>
<p>A proposed $26 billion nationwide settlement with the pharmaceutical industry over the opioid crisis drew a sharp rebuke from Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner Martin Wiescholek. </p>
<p>“It’s the settlement culture that we have come to accept as part of our daily lives where corporations can do whatever they want and if they get caught, they pay a little settlement,’’ he said Jan. 3 at a Town Commission meeting.</p>
<p>“It is unconscionable to even consider such a settlement. It's a slap in the face to every American.’’ </p>
<p>With Wiescholek dissenting, the commission voted 4-1 to join the settlement with Johnson & Johnson and drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson.</p>
<p>If the deal is finalized, Ocean Ridge stands to get $32,000 to $36,000 over 18 years, Town Attorney Christy Goddeau told commissioners. </p>
<p>Many municipalities in Palm Beach County have <a href="https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-opioid-settlements-way-less-than-cost-of-crisis-g">reluctantly agreed to participate</a>, noting the payouts will fall far short of the epidemic’s financial and human costs. </p>
<p>But Wiescholek, who had the item pulled from the commission’s consent agenda so he could publicly share his feelings, said his concerns were not about whether Ocean Ridge was getting its fair share of money.</p>
<p>“It’s not a cost issue where we can say, ‘Well, you know what? At least they are paying back what it cost us the taxpayers.’ It's simply, ‘We’re getting away with it and we are keeping most of our profits.’ That is not acceptable in my book,’’ he said.</p>
<p>“I'm going to make a very bold statement here: Keep your free money. I don’t want it. This is not what this town should be about. We should be ashamed of taking $32,000 for a settlement of 500,000 people that have been killed.’’ </p>
<p>Vice Mayor Susan Hurlburt told Wiescholek she agreed with everything he said but added, “I don’t think us not taking part in this is going to make a hill of beans in the big picture.’’</p>
<p>Commissioner Geoff Pugh pointed out the town accepted money years ago from settlements with the tobacco companies.</p>
<p>“I think the town is lucky to get $32,000,’’ he said. “Maybe it's a small slap to those companies but still it's something.’’</p>
<p>According to research Wiescholek said he did before the commission meeting, the $26 billion settlement works out to about 5% of the four companies’ combined profits. </p>
<p>And if the town gets as much as $36,000, that equates to about $19 for each town resident, he told the commission. Then he said the street cost for one Oxycontin pill is $20. </p>
<p>“So we are settling this thing for the price of under one pill per resident to get these drug companies off our backs. Not acceptable. It's just not acceptable,’’ he said, adding that the attorneys general who negotiated that settlement “should be ashamed of themselves.’’ </p>
<p>Before the commission voted to participate in the deal, one resident told Wiescholek she was insulted by his comments.</p>
<p>“This is not the place for social issues’’ said Stella Kolb. “What you're doing, Commissioner, is lecturing to us and I resent it.’’</p></div>Letter to the Editor: Warm handoff or cold bodies?https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/letter-to-the-editor-warm-handoff-or-cold-bodies2019-07-03T16:40:50.000Z2019-07-03T16:40:50.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p>In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced $26 million in additional federal funding for Florida’s State Opioid Response Project. The project aims to reduce opioid deaths, prevent opioid abuse among youth, and increase recovery services and access to treatment.<br />That last part needs to be a top priority of the project. Recovery services and access to quality care — specifically, equitable access to care — needs to become a hallmark of every comprehensive opioid response program, so that those who have overdosed don’t experience a revolving door from ambulance to emergency room and back to the street. America has the best substance abuse treatment in the world, but it is strongly correlated to socioeconomic status. Doctors, judges, lawyers, pilots, nurses and numerous other professionals all have access to resources that allow for treatment plus continuing follow-up care to prevent relapse. But when it comes to those with less money or fewer professional resources, our system defaults to bury people in prison, or directly in the ground.<br />If we want to see systemic change, we need our hospitals’ leadership to empower our medical professionals with “warm handoff” programs. We achieved this before in mental health, and we can do it again with substance use disorders. If a patient shows up with self-inflicted cuts, he or she will go from the ER to a follow-up system that includes 72 hours of safe, supportive services, a lethality assessment with medical professionals, and referral to appropriate care.<br />The American Medical Association has classified substance use disorder as a disease for over half a century. And yet somehow, even with tens of thousands of cases over the last decade of overdose victims being expeditiously discharged from emergency rooms, only to often turn up dead a short while later, we still don’t classify medically dying and being resurrected with lifesaving medication, like naloxone, as “self-harm.” Until we classify killing oneself via overdose — even with reversal — as self-harm, we’re going to see our death toll, already at more than 70,000 Americans per year, continue to rise.<br />Probably the single most important step toward saving lives on the front lines is seeding hospital systems’ boards of directors and trustees with individuals who have a comprehensive knowledge of substance use disorders and mental health concerns. Boards with this knowledge can advocate for systemic protocols that allow for effective warm handoff to treatment.<br />The EMS first responders know the current system is broken. So do the doctors, nurses and the families who end up burying those same patients. Hospital systems are a critical stakeholder in addressing the leading cause of death for Americans under age 55. It’s unconscionable that we haven’t addressed this glaring systemic deficiency in a meaningful way by 2019.<br /><em>Andrew Burki,</em><br /><em>Chief Public Policy Officer,</em><br /><em>Hanley Foundation</em></p></div>