Indiana likely won’t put more money toward fighting opioid epidemic next year – By Kaitlin L Lange (indystar.com) / Dec 3 2017
Lawmakers and Gov. Eric Holcomb are in agreement: Fighting the opioid epidemic needs to remain a priority next legislative session. That does not mean, however, the state will be putting more money toward ending the epidemic.
Currently, the state designates $5 million a year for Indiana’s drug czar to dedicate to drug abuse. Other departments deal largely with the opioid epidemic, too, and are given money, such as the Department of Corrections.
Sen. Jim Merritt, who was responsible for much of the opioid legislation last legislative session, and Holcomb’s appointed drug czar, Jim McClelland, say $5 million a year just isn’t enough.
“It’s not really a large pot of money we have here,” McClelland said. “We want to be really careful and we want to use that where we believe we have the potential of the greatest impact.”
Holcomb made fighting the opioid epidemic one of his five priorities for 2018. House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Senate leader David Long, R-Fort Wayne, both stated it was a priority during their speeches on the ceremonial start of the session.
Nearly 1 in 20 people in Indiana report having used opioid pain relievers for non-medical uses. Fatal overdoses rose by an average 3.5 percent each year in Indiana from 2011 to 2015, according to Department of Health data.
Indiana University’s 2018 economic forecast predicted Indiana loses from $1.25 to $1.8 billion in gross state product because of the lost productivity.
That said, Merritt and McClelland won’t be pushing for more money because the upcoming legislative session is not a budget session. Indiana has a two-year budget cycle, so the next budget won’t be debated and adopted until 2019.
Instead, Merritt is drafting legislation that would increase sentencing for drug dealers and bills focused on prescription reform. Holcomb and his administration are hoping to open more FSSA-approved treatment centers and require physicians to check the state’s prescription drug monitoring program before prescribing opioids.
Both are pushing to improve reporting of drug overdoses so that the state is better positioned to receive money from the federal government in the future.
Long acknowledged the need for more money during his opening speech, however, he also emphasized the need for other organizations to help the state.
“Yes, we need more money to deal with the problem. There’s no question about that,” Long said. “…and the state can’t do it alone.”
Currently, a large chunk of the money dedicated to fighting the epidemic comes from federal grant money and donations from local organizations. Indiana received money from the Federal Cures Grant and most recently, Indiana University announced it will dedicate $50 million over the next five years to the opioid epidemic.
It’s still not enough in many advocates’ eyes.
“It’s frustrating that we’re still talking and still deciding and not doing,” said Justin Phillips, founder of Overdose Lifeline, which provides prevention tools, distributes Naloxone and offers support during recovery. “People are dying.”
McClelland, who was appointed in January after the legislative session already started, said that at the time, they weren’t in the position to ask for more money.
Merritt, too, said his focus was largely on changing the culture of the General Assembly, making sure lawmakers understood that opioid addiction is “an illness, not a character flaw.”
“We had to get away from the stigma,” Merritt said. “We’ve incrementally changed the conversation, and you have to start somewhere. And $10 million was a very good start.”
That’s why his goal is to solve the opioid epidemic in five years, giving him three budgets to carve out more funding to solve the epidemic.
“We have a $250 million problem in the state … $10 million just scratches the surface,” Merritt said. “We got caught unaware, and we’re losing right now, although we’re getting all of our tools and all of our weapons to kill the epidemic. This thing hasn’t crested yet. The overdose deaths are still growing.”
Right now that $5 million a year for two years is dedicated to various pilot programs.
Those pilot programs, however, only touch small portions of the state. For instance, the pilot program providing resources for pregnant mothers and those with newborns will be available in three locations in the state — Marion County, Winchester and southern Indiana.
Another pilot program that creates a multi-level treatment facility as a diversion to jail is only available in Fort Wayne.
There aren’t plans to expand either program next year.
Carrie Lawrence, associate director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention, said she’d like to see Indiana re-evaluate its budget, but she knows that’s unlikely in a non-budget year.
Specifically, she’d like to see more resources for syringe exchanges, a controversial topic in itself that some local communities have been against. At the very least, she said, the tax cap for local communities should be nixed, so they can better pay for resources.
Other people involved at a local level called for more prevention education.
Eric Yazel, the Clark County health officer, also emphasized the need for more treatment centers.
Holcomb plans to push for more treatment centers that can dispense medication, however, he isn’t putting any money toward the plan. Therefore, the number of treatment centers won’t change, just the number of FSSA-approved centers will.
As a local ER physician, Yazel sees addicts come into the hospital and typically has to hand them a phone number for a treatment center. Oftentimes, they’ll have to endure a 30-day waiting period, he said.
“I feel like I’m letting them down when I can’t get them in somewhere right away,” Yazel said. “And I understand. If there’s no beds, there’s no beds.”
He also worries about the temporary nature of the grants the county is receiving. He has no way of knowing if the programs will be able to continue into 2019.
“The grant process has been wonderful,” Yazel said, “but the more funding, the more we can do.”
PB/TK – Throwing money at situations is the American governing way! It’s easier to toss money and have people believe something will be done as a way to compensate for their lack of a plan. Changing prescription laws will have the medicated public freakout because they’ll have to re-fill their drugs more often, costing more out of pocket. Changing illegal drug dealing laws but upping the conviction time is only going to domino into other problems, plus those docs that are just writing scripts are as bad as the guy on the street corner.
No one gave a rats a$$ about the opioid problem till it started hitting the suburbs and Billy/Lacey are grabbbing daddy’s oxycodone after her recent shoulder surgery or grannie’s opana script for her arthritis. We are an over-prescribed medicated society; Got an itch? Here’s a script for ointment and steroids. Got a knee ache? Take 3 Vicadin for a month and we’ll talk. There are so many infomercials and ads for prescriptions for this or that, we begin to think we have this or that.
