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Contact:
Minnesota Department of Human Services
Sarah Berg
Communications
651-431-4901
Sarah.Berg@state.mn.us
Minnesota Department of Health
Scott Smith
Communications
651-201-5806
Scott.Smith@state.mn.us
Minnesota wins grants to reduce the harmful
impact of prescription medication abuse
Minnesota’s efforts to reduce the abuse of opioids has
received a boost with new funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS).
The Minnesota Department of
Human Services (DHS) received a $1.6 million, five-year grant from the federal
government through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA). The Minnesota Department of Health also received an HHS grant of
about $900,000 over a three-year period as part of the CDC Prescription Drug
Overdose: Data-Driven Prevention Initiative.
These grants will help address
the state’s worrisome rise in the abuse of prescription opioid pain medication.
Over the past two decades, deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily,
and opioid pain reliever overdose
deaths have nearly doubled in the last decade, from 111 in 2005 to 216 in 2015.
Between 2004 and 2009, emergency department visits resulting from opioid use
and misuse had nearly doubled.
Opioids include prescription
medications used to treat pain, such as morphine, codeine, methadone,
OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, Fentanyl and buprenorphine, as well as illegal
drugs such as heroin. Opioids can be an effective tool for pain management but
can also result in physical dependency in some patients.
“The cost to the people who
become dependent on these powerful drugs — as well as the cost to their
families, to the community and to the state — is staggering,” said DHS
Commissioner Emily Piper. “This is a problem that needs to be tackled from many
angles. Treatment is key, but so is prevention, so that more people can avoid
the struggle of dependence in the first place.”
Using its grant, DHS will
design strategies to:
- Raise awareness about the dangers of sharing
medications
- Work with pharmaceutical and medical communities
on the risks of overprescribing to young adults
- Raise community awareness and bring prescription
drug abuse prevention activities and education to schools, communities, parents
and prescribers and their patients.
In addition, SAMHSA will track
reductions in opioid overdoses and the use of Prescription Drug Monitoring
Program data.
“The Prescription Monitoring Program is a
critical ingredient in reducing the availability of prescription opioids,” said
Piper. “It’s an important tool in making sure that people abusing opioids
aren’t able to go from doctor to doctor to receive multiple prescriptions.”
The Prescription Monitoring
Program is a voluntary program for prescribers that tracks prescriptions for
controlled substances, as well as offers training on addiction, prescribing
opiates and alternative approaches to pain management.
The Minnesota Department of
Health initiative, in partnership with the Minnesota Board on Pharmacy, will
help Minnesota improve its ability to collect and analyze opioid abuse and overdose
data and work with communities to develop and implement prevention strategies
and programs. This project will also focus on partnering with providers to
improve outcomes such as decreasing drug diversions, hospitalizations and
overdose deaths.
Overprescribing narcotic
painkillers is a local, state and national problem harming people of all ages
and all walks of life. Harmful health consequences resulting from the abuse of
opioid medications have dramatically increased in recent years. For example,
unintentional poisoning deaths from prescription opioids quadrupled nationally from
1999 to 2010 and now outnumber those from heroin and cocaine combined. In
addition, there is also a link between prescription opioid abuse and illegal
drug use. Studies have found that nearly half of young people who inject heroin
reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin. Some
individuals reported switching to heroin because it is cheaper and easier to
obtain than prescription opioids.
“We need all the tools we can
develop to fight this,” added Piper. “Prevention is a critical piece to the
opioid abuse and addiction puzzle.”
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