By ANDREA LANNOM
The Register-Herald
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — About 50,000 to 60,000 people died last year in the U.S. from drug overdoses, the Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health told State Board of Education Wednesday.
Dr. Rahul Gupta presented a report called “Opioids: A Crisis in Evolution,” and which included problems the state faces along with ways the state has worked to reduce vulnerability.
Gupta said his goal is to make sure board members understand the challenge of the opioid crisis with an emphasis on children in the state.
“It’s impacting every way we look. It’s not limited to the individual,” Gupta said. “Also, it’s not a matter of choice. It’s a chronic brain disease where people can relapse. Once you’re addicted and you don’t have it, you are using medicine to prevent the pain that comes from withdrawal rather than getting high. That education is critical for society, board members as well as teachers in the classrooms who work with kids and make an impact that goes beyond the classroom.”
Gupta said 50,000 to 60,000 people in the United States died last year from overdoses.
“That’s about 160 people a day, the capacity of a Boeing 737,” Gupta said. “And we have one West Virginian dying every 10 hours as we speak. For our population, that is very high.”
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, West Virginia ranked No. 1 for overdose deaths with 41.5 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Gupta said West Virginia not only leads overdose deaths in the country, but the death rate is also about 35 percent or more higher than any surrounding state.
By comparison of deaths per 100,000 residents, Ohio and Kentucky had 29.9; Virginia had 12.4; Maryland had 20.9 and Pennsylvania had 26.3.
Gupta presented results from the Risk behavioral survey. In 2015, 34.7 percent of high school students reported trying marijuana and 15.5 percent reported using prescription drugs.
For middle school, 10 percent of students reported trying marijuana and 4.5 percent reported trying prescription drugs.
Gupta also said that one in four students in high school reported being offered, sold or given illegal drugs on school property.
Gupta said costs to address the problem don’t stop with the individual. He said the total societal cost of prescription opioid abuse was $78.5 billion in 2013.
“We know it is not just the person who gets addicted. It impacts the workforce, total health care costs and also getting into the criminal justice system,” he said.
“The problem is if we don’t address this, single most impactful public health disaster in 240 plus year history. There are 260,000 people dying year after year.”
One in 20 babies born in West Virginia suffers from neonatal abstinence syndrome, Gupta said.
He also said there has been an increase in foster care children, which can cost in the range of $25,000 to $28,528 per child per year.
Gupta said there have been efforts to reduce vulnerability in the state, including enhanced surveillance for HIV and Hepatitis C, expanding Hepatitis B and C testing, expanding needle exchange programs, and expanding naloxone distribution.
He said several policies have helped address the problem, as well, such as Good Samaritan laws and House Bill 2620, which was passed in the last legislative session to create the state Office of Drug Control Policy.
“These are game-changers that allow us to focus coordinated ways and efforts into one place to not avoid duplication,” Gupta said.
Board member Frank Vitale said the opioid epidemic affects children in every way. He said major hospitals in some counties reported last year that 35 percent of all infants were born into addiction. Vitale said opioid usage is a symptom of a bigger problem.
“While opioid addiction certainly is pervasive in all capacities, those most vulnerable are in lower socio-economic statuses. It impacts the state, many areas of the rural part of southern part of the state. … It’s systemic and a lack of hope in so many cases, these homes children return from school to every day. “
He asked the state superintendent to look into how the department is preparing teachers to interface with children who may be facing this problem themselves or within their families or friends. He also said the quit-line number should be available in every school if it is not available to them now.
“This is warfare in many fronts in our state right now,” Vitale said. “Education is a way to win that war.”
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