UW-Milwaukee Speakers Label the Opioid Crisis as a Public Health Issue

The opioid war is a “major health crisis that we are facing” in Milwaukee county and needs to be treated as a public health issue rather than a law enforcement problem, a former state representative and policy manager said during a forum at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“Here in Milwaukee county, we have more opioid related overdose deaths of any place in Wisconsin,” said Jon Richards, Milwaukee attorney and former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. “This is such a terrible problem that is wreaking havoc and we all have a role to play.”

The solution should be from a harm reduction plan, which can be modeled after successful strategies that other countries have put in place, according to Hannah Hetzer, senior international policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance.

“Prevention is important in combating this, but that wouldn’t be my focus,” said Hetzer. “I want to talk about how we can work with and support people that are dealing with addiction to opioids.”

This discussion of the opioid crisis titled “Winning the Opioid War: Enforcement, Treatment and Prevention,” was the third in the Fireside Forum series at UWM. The forum partnered with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this year to bring a four-part series that looks at issues from a global and local perspective.

Recently, the synthetic opioid of Fentanyl has become a major problem for Milwaukee, according to Richards.

Fentanyl is a prescription drug that is used for pain relief with patients for chronic pain. It is a controlled drug, which is safe to use if the dose and frequency is prescribed by a doctor and followed appropriately. More information on Fentanyl can be found here.

A way to address opioids, like Fentanyl, is with the disposal of unused medication, according to Richards.

“Studies have shown that unused medicine is a gateway to heroin abuse,” said Richards. “Eighty percent of heroin users have used unused medicine improperly to get a high, which feeds or starts an addiction.”

There are 76 locations in the county which will take unused or unwanted medication, according to Richards. Some locations include police stations and pharmacies, such as the Milwaukee County Police and CVS Pharmacies.

For information on where to drop off unused or old medicine in Milwaukee, visit: https://www.takebackmymeds.com/

The Heroin, Opioid and Cocaine Task Force of Milwaukee County, which was formed last year, has looked at the crisis and formed a plan that is focused on a public health approach, according to Richards. The plan is to expand the use of Naloxone and create more treatment centers. Currently, there are only three detox centers specifically for opioids in the Milwaukee County.

Naloxone is a common opioid overdose reversal drug that would be administered to block the effects of the opioid during an overdose. The drug would be given by first responders upon arrival to the emergency of a suspected overdose.

Expanding access of Naloxone to more first responders and to families would be the most effective way to prevent overdoses, according to Hetzer.

Other countries have adapted strategies that include opioid agonist therapy, heroin assisted treatment, supervised consumption sites and drug checking, according to Hetzer.

Opioid agonist therapy is when a person will receive a longer-acting opioid drug as a substitute for the shorter-acting opioid. This results in the person experiencing minimized withdrawal symptoms and a slow ween off the drug completely. If the opioid agonist therapy doesn’t work then heroin-assisted treatment could be used. Heroin-assisted treatment is a method that allows a patient to receive heroin by a doctor through strict regulation.

Supervised consumption sites are areas under medical supervision that people can go to use drugs. Canada started supervised consumption sites and some cities in the U.S., like Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver and Seattle are starting to discuss them, according to Hetzer.

“There has never been any overdose death in any of the consumption sites,” said Hetzer.

For more information on supervised consumption sites you can go to Insite, which is Canada’s first consumption site.

Drug checking is analyzing drugs to determine its components, which is helpful because a lot of sellers and users don’t know what is in the drug, according to Hetzer.

These four strategies are classified as being a part of a harm reduction plan.

“Harm reduction is the idea that if people can’t stop using drugs immediately or potentially ever there are still ways to support them to minimize the most harmful effects of overdoses and diseases,” said Hetzer.

“I feel like it wouldn’t get to the heart of things,” said Jim Williams, Milwaukee resident and UWM alum on the idea of following a harm reduction plan. “Many people take these powerful and deadly drugs to dull the pain. We have to do more to provide therapy and help people understand the risk they are taking and why they are taking it.”

The main cause of the opioid epidemic is the lack of regulation, over prescription of opioid drugs and the search for alleviation of pain both physically and emotionally, said Hetzer.

“It’s true that some people use opioids to dull pain,” said Richards. “But, something else is coming into the picture that is causing a massive increase in death.”

Right now, the county’s focus is on making sure that people who are addicted to opioids are getting the treatment they need, according to Richards.

“As much as we want to help individuals and individuals want to help themselves, they need a support system,” said Laura Manriquez, health administration student at UWM. “People need someone to believe in them.”