LANCASTER – A capacity crowd attended the third annual Opiate Roundtable with Congressman Steve Stivers representing Ohio’s 15th District at Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster Thursday morning.
 
The roundtable discussion included law enforcement officials, healthcare experts, state and community organizations from Athens, Fairfield, Franklin, Hocking, Morgan, Perry, Pickaway, Ross and Vinton counties, all of which are impacted by the growing opiate epidemic.

“I think this is a great way to get law enforcement, prosecutors, healthcare treatment folks, local government and community organizations together to talk about a whole government approach to handling our opiate problem,” Stivers said. “We are here to try and find best practices and issues that we can do to move forward.

“The point of the roundtable is to talk about issues and identify potential problems where I can be helpful at the federal level, as well as helping you to coordinate and network with each other,” he added. “I find that if we can have a more holistic approach, we can better solve problems. I think that is very helpful. There is a lot of incredible talent around this room and I want to be mostly in listening mode.”

The congressman reflected on the two previous roundtable events to inform those in attendance about some progress that has been made. Stivers noted that as a result of the 2013 roundtable, the VA system that was not reporting into the automated prescription system, is now doing so as of 2014.

He noted by reporting into the prescription system, it helps to eliminate the possibility of getting multiple prescriptions by the same patient, which also helps eliminate the possibility of an overdose.

Stivers explained that another issue discussed was regarding the dosage of Naloxone. “We are still working with the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to ensure that people are not overdosed by some os those type of things,” he said.

During the 2014 roundtable, Stivers said that Hocking County Municipal Court Judge Fred Moses talked about Vivitrol and how it differs from Suboxone. He explained that Vivitrol, which is made in Ohio, takes away the ability to get high, as opposed to Suboxone, which acts as a controlled high.

“I apologize for using inarticulate terms, those are my terms,” he said. “So instead of the controlled high of Suboxone, Vivitrol takes away the ability for the neurotransmitters to allow somebody to get high and it is a very interesting alternative.”

Stivers said he wrote a letter to the United States Department of Justice and had others sign it as well explaining the use of Vivitrol in the drug courts and as a result they have started a federal program with Vivitrol to see if it works.

“I think we need to be willing to try new things and see if they work,” Stivers commented. “I don’t think there’s going to be any panacea in this huge problem that we have, but anytime we can try new things and see how they work, I think that is really helpful.”

Another issue that came out as a result of the roundtable was about pregnant women who are addicted to opiates. According to Stivers, Adena Health System has a program in Chillicothe and Mary Haven is also working on some things as well. As a result, he became one of the lead sponsors of HR 1462 – Protecting Our Infants Act, which will hopefully improve tracking, evaluate treatments and help prevent the occurrence of neonatal abstinence syndrome or babies that are born addicted to drugs.

He noted the HR 1462 bill is going to be on the House floor next Tuesday and he believes it will pass the House and will move on to the Senate.

“Mitch McConnell is the Senate sponsor, so I feel pretty good about the chances for that bill to pass again. Unfortunately, none of these individual things are going to be a quick fix, but I think if we can continue to look at ideas, gain resources, evaluate treatments and figure out where to put our limited federal and local dollars, I think we will do much better,” he said.

Stivers said that following the roundtable discussions, he takes the findings and tries to find a solution to the issues.

“There isn’t going to be any one thing that I can do to help solve the problem, but I want to help all of you where we can to put federal resources to work and make the federal resources that are being spent work better. That is what we did with the Vivitrol program and hopefully we can make more progress,” he said.

Stivers went around the table and invited the guests to introduce themselves. When it was Moses’ turn, he explained that Hocking County has the only approved and certified state run Vivitrol court in addition to drug court.

Sandra Ogle, Hocking County Commissioner, who works closely with Moses and the drug court talked about hiring recovering addicts.

“I am proud to work with the different agencies that help people and I have been able to hire some of the recovering addicts and provide jobs for people who have addictions,” she said.

Stivers asked Ogle to talk about the importance of providing jobs for recovering addicts. “If there are not economic opportunities for folks coming out of recovery, it really creates a problem,” he said.

Later during the discussion, Ogle suggested that perhaps businesses, particularly small businesses, may be more willing and open to employing recovering individuals if they were perhaps given a tax credit.

Barry Ricketts, local resident, said that he was on hand, simply as a concerned citizen, father and grandfather.

“This is a problem that needed to be addressed a long time ago and I just hope that we can make a difference. I have set in Judge Moses court and watched it and was thoroughly impressed. This is what needs to happen nationwide – not just statewide,” Ricketts said.