Recently, Twitter D.C. and the Republican Main Street Partnership hosted a live conversation on Twitter on combating the opioid epidemic with leading policymakers including U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, Representative Barbara Comstock, Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, and Representative Fred Upton.
Dr. Jerome Adams gave the keynote address and outlined the administration’s understanding of and plan to address the opioid crisis. He noted the need for citizens and lawmakers alike to grasp the issue on a local level and explained that there is a lot of confusion surrounding what opioids are and how individuals fall to addiction.
Dr. Adams stated his belief that the epidemic was not a problem, but instead a symptom of the lack of health and wellness in communities. He recommended taking on risk factors of poor health to help cut down on opioid addiction. The Surgeon General stated that it was important to form and rely on collaborations as the issue was multifaceted, and to share best practices widely when success is demonstrated.
He asked for attendees/viewers to go to their medicine cabinets while they were watching and clean out any medications they are no longer using, as 80% of heroin users got started with a prescription opioid. Unfortunately, most of those prescriptions did not come from their own doctor, but from someone else’s medicine cabinet.
He also mentioned that he was excited about the BE BEST initiative from the First Lady to assist children impacted by the opioid crisis, and outlined administration pushes to prevent addiction, supply communities with naloxone, and provide access to a variety of medication-assisted treatments and behavioral therapy.
Lev Facher of STAT news moderated the panel of Congress members and asked how Congress could best go about enacting policies to combat the epidemic. Representative Barbara Comstock answered that policies should focus on involving the entire community – including social services, health providers, schools, and faith – to create a 360 degree view and support system. She spoke of a story about a father who lost his wife to cancer and his daughter to addiction, highlighting the importance of bringing the opioid epidemic “out of the shadows, so no family feels they are alone. Families need to have some place to turn to.”
Representative Fred Upton referenced the shortage of postal workers and lack of available tools to adequately inspect domestic and international mail for illegal opioid distribution. He applauded the Energy and Commerce Committee for passing over 100 bills aimed at combatting opioids and noted the House would bring those bills to the floor the second week of June. He explained that lawmakers may try to allocate additional funding for opioids in 21st Century Cures reallocations and stated, “You’re going to see additional resources from every corner of the country. We’re hearing stories from home about how desperate it is for families…More help is on the way, but we also need more tools in the toolbox.”
Representative Brian Fitzpatrick opined that eliminating stigma around addiction was the pressure point of the issue, and compared allocations for combatting the epidemic to war spending. He explained that the government wouldn’t cap spending on a war it was trying to win, and that the amount of money lost to opioids would be recovered if the government could commit to an upfront investment to combat the epidemic. He suggested legislation aimed at strengthening prescription drug monitoring programs, in addition to allowing information to flow across state lines to prevent multiple prescriptions. He stated that the opioid epidemic may have begun due to Medicare reimbursement policies that encouraged opioid prescribing and use based on patient pain scales. Fitzpatrick also mentioned that while it is important to be aggressive in fighting the epidemic, it is also important to be mindful of seniors and those with chronic pain who rely on opioids for pain management.