COMMUNITY NEWS Lines for Life Joins with the Medical Community Across Oregon to End Opioid Abuse By Dwight Holton, JD THIS STORY GIVES ME GOOSEBUMPS. Following a car crash, a young woman was prescribed opioids for the pain that wrenched through her broken back. But long after her body was healed, she still needed those pills. Now addicted to opioids, she got sick if she didn’t get them. And one day, she was out of pills. None in the medicine cabinet, nor her parents’, nor her friends’. She left the house, headed somewhere she never thought she would go: she was headed to buy heroin at a drug spot in Eugene. At the last minute, she turned around, went home and told her mom she needed help. She’s spent many years in recovery now, a remarkable success professionally and personally—but often, this story has a different ending. At Lines for Life, we are dedicated to preventing substance abuse and suicide—and making sure this tragic ending never happens. One way we are working toward this goal was by launching the Oregon Coalition for Responsible Use of Meds (OrCRM) in 2013. OrCRM holds regional summits to develop and implement regional solutions to the opioid crisis. Physicians are leading the way. For example, in Eastern Oregon, doctors have convened a pain guidance group to develop prescribing guidelines. In Portland, prescribers joined health systems in adopting new standards for pain management. In Central Oregon, doctors, behavioralists and others endorsed pain standards and are working to expand access to Medication Assisted Treatment. Willamette Valley and Coast providers have launched clinics specializing in alternatives to opioids for pain management. Doctors in Southern Oregon—longtime leaders in the field—are working to improve access to Naloxone, the life-saving overdose reversal drug. The challenge is daunting. Oregon ranks second in the nation in misuse of opioids—with over 100 million opioid pills prescribed each year. But evidence is mounting that opioids offer little help in treating chronic pain—while more studies show the risk of dependence: 47% of patients on opioids for 30 days will still be on opioids 3 years later. With physician leadership, we can end this epidemic, improve patient care, and avoid creating a generation lost to dependence on opioids. Lines for Life and OrCRM applaud the energy, creativity and effectiveness that physicians bring to helping us meet this desperate crisis. Dwight Holton, JD, is the Chief Executive Officer of Lines for Life and a former U.S. Attorney. w ww.TheOMA.org Winter 2016 29
OMA Medicine in OR Winter 2015 2016
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