By Casey Ross STAT (January 17, 2018)

The quickest way to erase pain is to give patients an opioid. But a rise in prescriptions has fueled a national epidemic of fatal overdoses, with a large share of the deaths occurring in low-income communities.

Under intense pressure to combat the problem, states across the country are expanding their Medicaid programs to cover alternative treatments such as acupuncture, massage, and yoga. The effort could increase non-opioid options for low-income patients suffering from pain. But it also opens states to criticism from skeptics who say taxpayers are being forced to fund unproven treatments based on political expediency instead of sound science.

Ohio’s Medicaid department took the most dramatic step this month by extending coverage of acupuncture treatments delivered by non-medical providers for patients with low-back pain and migraines, a step likely to allow much greater access and attract new practitioners to the field.

But Ohio is not alone. Eleven other states have implemented policies to encourage beneficiaries to use alternative therapies to help manage their pain and limit reliance on opioids, according to a 2016 survey by the National Academy for State Health Policy. In addition to acupuncture, covered services include massage, yoga, chiropractic manipulation, and various forms of physical and behavioral therapy, among others.

Related Story:

FDA proposes that doctors learn about acupuncture for pain management

Two states, Maine and Vermont, are currently considering whether to expand coverage of acupuncture to treat pain after conducting studies to test its effectiveness for beneficiaries.

The trend raises vexing questions: In the quest to turn the tide of the opioid epidemic, how far should states go in embracing new or unproven medical interventions? And if they shun those treatments, what else should they do?

Existing evidence offers few answers

Alternative pain therapies are just beginning to enter the mix of responses to the opioid crisis, as states move on from rewriting rules surrounding prescribing practices, said Kitty Purington, a senior program director for the National Academy for State Health Policy. “States are acutely invested in this issue and are working on a number of fronts,” she said.

But the effort to encourage Medicaid beneficiaries to use alternative treatments is politically and financially fraught. Supporters say it is a crucial part of the strategy to limit opioid prescriptions and curb abuse. But skeptics argue it has the potential to significantly increase costs for therapies whose medical benefits are unclear.

“They’re probably at risk of wasting a lot of taxpayer money,” said Dr. David Gorski, a surgical oncologist and editor of the blog Science-Based Medicine. “If you spend money on treatments that don’t work, treatments that are pseudoscience, that’s money that not going to potentially effective treatments.”

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Medicine with a side of mysticism: Top hospitals promote unproven therapies

“If you look at the overall evidence, there’s one thing that becomes clear,” he said. “The more rigorous the study, the smaller the effect, which is approaching zero.”

Acupuncture is at the forefront of the debate. Several states are covering it, or considering doing so for certain types of patients. But the evidence of its effectiveness remains unclear, even in clinical circumstances with a large body of published research.

The Cochrane Collaboration, an international network of researchers who specialize in evaluating medical evidence, has issued a variety of judgments about acupuncture’s efficacy. The group’s reviews find that acupuncture offers a small, short-term benefit for patients with chronic low-back pain, but notes that most studies are of low quality. It concludes that acupuncture can help arthritis patients, but that the benefits are too small, and too susceptible to placebo, to be considered clinically relevant. It also offers a qualified endorsement for its use on migraine patients, finding that acupuncture offers a small benefit and can reduce the frequency of attacks.

Even backers of acupuncture do not suggest it’s a cure-all, but worth a try for patients in need of relief.

Related Story:

An integrative approach to managing chronic pain can help solve the opioid crisis

“Acupuncture is not going to solve the opioid crisis,” said Robert Davis, an acupuncturist who led Vermont’s Medicaid study. “But acupuncture is one tool that helps patients. It helps them get their feet back under them.” Vermont’s study found that, among about 150 pain patients, acupuncture improved patients’ rating of pain, fatigue, depression, and other measures — though the study didn’t include a control group, and so may have reflected a placebo effect.

Several professional organizations have also endorsed the use of acupuncture in specific circumstances. The American College of Physicians published a guideline last year calling for low-back pain to be treated with non-drug therapies such as superficial heat, massage, acupuncture, and spinal manipulation.

States take a variety of approaches

As states weigh the evidence and opposing arguments, many are moving cautiously. In Vermont, the Medicaid department is still considering how to translate the findings of its study into recommendations to state lawmakers, who will ultimately decide whether to expand coverage.

“If we add acupuncture, is it just going to be an extra million dollars that Medicaid spends without saving a million dollars somewhere else?” said Dr. Scott Strenio, medical director of Vermont’s Medicaid department. “Does it really help people more than what we have available now?”

It is unclear how much acupuncture would actually cost states. In Ohio, it could be used on more than 100,000 Medicaid patients with diagnosed pain conditions; each treatment session costs between $75 and $125, but the frequency of the sessions depends of the clinical circumstances.

Strenio said his department is examining the possibility of creating a benefit that would allow Medicaid patients to choose from a menu of treatment options after undergoing an evaluation by pain specialists. “You could design a plan that maybe incorporates a number of different modalities, including acupuncture, if that was felt to be a key component,” he said. Such a plan would allow members to try a variety of therapies, instead of “just popping an opioid.”

Oregon has created a similar approach, according to the survey by the National Academy for State Health Policy. The state covers several treatment options for patients with low-back pain, including acupuncture, chiropractic care, physical and occupational therapy, and behavioral therapy. The state also recommends treatment plans that include yoga, massage, and exercise therapy, although applicability of those services is determined by organizations that coordinate care for Oregon’s Medicaid beneficiaries.

Alabama has also considered expanding its treatment options for chronic pain. But a spokeswoman for the Medicaid department said the state decided against it after encountering multiple barriers, including limited access to local pain specialists and concerns about the additional administrative burdens the expansion would place on that small group of providers.

“For these reasons, we are encouraging use of existing services along with our current pharmacy program controls,” the spokeswoman, Robin Rawls, wrote in an emailed statement.

Related Story:

Your mind can be trained to control chronic pain. But it will cost you

In Ohio, which is combatting an especially severe opioid abuse problem, public officials have taken a more aggressive tack. An opioid task force convened by Gov. John Kasich released a variety of recommendations in January 2016 for managing acute pain outside of hospital emergency departments. The list included non-opioid treatments such as massage, acupuncture, chiropractic adjustment, hypnotherapy, and biofeedback, a treatment that involves attaching sensors to patients to help monitor and control the body’s functions.

In 2017, the state’s Medicaid department opted to expand coverage for acupuncture, determining that the evidence of benefit was strongest for patients with low-back pain and migraines. Initially, the state authorized the treatment only when deemed medically necessary and delivered by a physician.

But physician practitioners of acupuncture are not always easy to find. So this month, the agency expanded coverage to include care provided by licensed acupuncturists and chiropractors, and included coverage for acupuncture with electrical stimulation.

A spokeswoman for Ohio’s Medicaid department said officials were careful to limit coverage to conditions for which there is strongest evidence of benefit. “We reviewed the literature in great detail with national subject experts across multiple states,” said the spokeswoman, Brittany Warner. “The strength of the data is strongest for our covered conditions as acupuncture effectiveness was tested compared to a ‘sham’ procedure (needles placed indiscriminately) as opposed to nothing.”

RUTLEDGE REACHES SETTLEMENT WITH BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM PHARMACEUTICALS

Says, ‘Arkansans should be able to trust that the medications they are being prescribed will help cure their ailments’

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has reached a settlement, along with attorneys general from all other states and the District of Columbia, with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (BIPI). The settlement ends a multistate investigation into BIPI’s alleged off-label marketing, deceptive and misleading representations made in its promotion of four of its prescription drugs: Micardis®, Aggrenox®, Atrovent®, and Combivent®. 

“Arkansans should be able to trust that the medications they are being prescribed will help cure their ailments,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “But the deceptive advertising practices of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals calls those prescriptions into question and puts Arkansans at risk of taking medications that will not help them.”

Arkansas will receive $175,298.58 of the $13.5 million settlement, which will be deposited into the Consumer Education and Enforcement Fund. The settlement resolves allegations that BIPI engaged in a course of trade or commerce that constitutes unfair, deceptive, or misleading practices, by making misrepresentations about the above-mentioned prescription drugs and by representing that the prescription drugs had sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, quantities, or qualities that they did not have. Specifically, the States allege BIPI: (1) misrepresented that its antiplatelet drug, Aggrenox®, was effective for many conditions “below the neck,” such as heart attacks and congestive heart failure, and that it was superior to Plavix® without evidence to substantiate that claim; (2) misrepresented that Micardis® protected patients from early morning strokes and heart attacks and treated metabolic syndrome; (3) misrepresented that Combivent® could be used as a first-line treatment for bronchospasms associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); and (4) falsely stated that Atrovent® and Combivent® could be used at doses that exceeded the maximum dosage recommendation in the product labeling and that they were essential for treatment of COPD.

The Consent Judgment requires BIPI to ensure that its marketing and promotional practices do not unlawfully promote these prescription drug products. Specifically, BIPI will:

Limit product sampling of the four drugs to health care providers whose clinical practice is consistent with the product labeling;

Refrain from offering financial incentives for sales that may indicate off-label use of any of the four drugs;

Ensure clinically relevant information is provided in an unbiased manner that is distinct from promotional materials; and

Provide that requests for off-label information regarding any of the four drugs are referred to BIPI’s Medical Division.

Kansas and Pennsylvania led the Executive Committee, which also includes Attorneys General from Arizona, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia are participating in the settlement.

By: STEPHANIE SHARP (KARK Ch.4 News)

MAYFLOWER, Ark. – The opioid crisis is a growing issues across the country and right here in Arkansas.

More and more law enforcement agencies are now carrying Narcan.

It blocks the effect of the drug when someone overdoses. However, getting Narcan can be expensive, especially for small departments.

The Mayflower Police Department is the recipient of the December Difference Maker Award. This will allow them to carry the life saving tool.

Mayflower Police Lieutenant Wesley Tyra patrols the streets of the community.

Lt. Wesley Tyra says they may not be big in size, but they stay very busy.

“We’re a small community, small department and we have limited resources,” Lt. Wesley Tyra said.

Because of those limited resources, they haven’t been able to get the tool Narcan. Narcan is a drug that is known to stop the effects of an overdose, and they have a big need for it.

“As we all know, the opioid crisis is a big problem in Arkansas and across the country and it’s continuing to grow,” says Chief Robert Alcon.

Because of how the department protect the Mayflower Community, they’ve been chosen to receive the Difference Maker Award.

“We want to give you a $1,000 check from Rainwater, Holt, & Sexton for the purpose of buying Narcan units for all of your officers at the Mayflower Police Department,” says Mike Rainwater.

“We’ll be able to use this on a regular basis, probably,” says Lt. Wesley Tyra.

The Arkansas Drug Director says opioid use is a major issue in the state and it will take multiple players to provide it to all agencies.

“From private sector, to foundation, to federal grants to get a majority of first responders on board with carrying Naloxone,” says Arkansas Drug Director Kirk Lane.

“We can get our officers protected so they can go in and use those Narcan units to save the lives of our neighbors,” says Mike Rainwater.

This is just one department now equipped with a tool. It may be small like the department, but it will make a big impact.

This can also help officers that come in contact with the dangerous drug.

If you would like to help provide Narcan to a law enforcement agency in Arkansas, contact Kirk Lane, the Arkansas Drug Director.

 

The Washington Post (12/21, Ingraham, 11.19M) reports the opioid epidemic escalated in 2016, “driven by an unprecedented surge in deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opiates,” according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“More than 42,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses in 2016, a 28 percent increase over 2015,” while “the number of people fatally overdosing on fentanyl and other synthetic opiates more than doubled, from 9,580 in 2015 to 19,413 in 2016.” The Post reports that many experts say political leaders “still aren’t taking the problem seriously, and in many instances are taking steps that will make it worse,” such as with the White House’s proposed budget cuts the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by $400 million and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.

AP (12/20) quotes Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, calling the growing opioid crisis an “urgent and deadly” epidemic that “clearly has a huge impact on our entire society.” Remarking on the two years of consecutive declines in US life expectancy, Robert Anderson, who oversees the CDC’s death statistics, said that “we could very well see a third year in a row. With no end in sight.”

NPR (12/21, Stein, 2.49M) reports that according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, “life expectancy in the U.S. fell for the second year in a row in 2016, nudged down again by a surge in fatal opioid overdoses.” NPR says the last time the US life expectancy dropped “was in 1993 because of the AIDS epidemic,” adding that life expectancy “hasn’t fallen two years in a row in the U.S. since the early 1960s.”

USA Today (12/21, Painter, 8.23M) reports that the life expectancy declines “are shockingly out of sync with a larger world in which lives are getting longer and healthier, public health experts said.” Peter Muennig, a professor of health policy and management at Columbia University, said, “The rest of the world is improving. The rest of the world is seeing large declines in mortality and large improvements in life expectancy” in countries despite income levels.

(Reuters) – Life expectancy in the United States dipped in 2016 as the number of deaths due to opioid drug overdoses surged and total drug overdose deaths rose 21 percent to 63,600, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. Life expectancy fell to 78.6 years, a decrease of 0.1 year from 2015, the second annual decline in a row and the first two-year decline since a drop in 1962 and 1963.

Opioid-related overdose deaths have been on the rise since 1999, but surged from 2014 to 2016, with an average annual increase of 18 percent, to become a national epidemic. From 2006 to 2014 the rise was only 3 percent annually on average and between 1999 to 2006 averaged 10 percent per year.

In 2016, 42,249 people died from opioid-related overdoses, up 28 percent from 2015, while the number of deaths from synthetic opioids other than methadone, such as fentanyl and tramadol, more than doubled to 19,413, the CDC said.

The 2016 rate of overdose deaths was up across all age groups but was highest rate among people aged 25 to 54.

West Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania had the highest age-adjusted drug overdose death rates in 2016.

The number of drug overdose deaths involving natural and semisynthetic opioids, which include drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone, was 14,487 in 2016.

As the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic has worsened, many state attorneys general have sued makers of these drugs as they investigate whether manufacturers and distributors engaged in unlawful marketing behavior.

President Donald Trump in October declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, which senior administration officals said would redirect federal resources and loosen regulations to combat abuse of the drugs. However, he stopped short of declaring a national emergency he had promised months before, which would have freed up more federal money.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jonathan Oatis)

How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid

The Straight Dope for Parents

“I was so lost when my son became addicted – I didn’t know where to start. If I had a book like How to Raise a Drug-Free Kid, I would have had a road map,” David Sheff, Journalist & Author of Beautiful Boy.

The highly acclaimed comprehensive guide to getting your child through the formative pre-teen, teen, and college years drug-free—now completely revised and updated.

Nearly every child will be offered drugs or alcohol before graduating high school, and excessive drinking is common at most colleges. But the good news is that a child who gets to age twenty-one without smoking, using illegal drugs, or abusing alcohol or prescription drugs is virtually certain never to do so.

Drawing on more than two decades of research at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASAColumbia), founder Joseph A. Califano, Jr., presents a clear, common-sense guide to helping kids stay drug-free. All parents dream of a healthy, productive, and fulfilling future for their children; Califano shows which specific actions work and what parents can do to teach, protect, and empower their children to have the greatest chance of making that future come true. Teenagers who learn about the risks of drugs from their parents are twice as likely never to try them, and this book provides the tools parents need to prepare their children for those crucial decision-making moments. 

In this revised and updated edition, Califano tackles some of the newest obstacles standing between our kids and a drug-free life—from social media sites and cell phone apps to the explosion in prescription and over-the-counter drug abuse and the increased dangers and addictive power of marijuana. He reveals what teens can’t or won’t tell their parents about their thoughts on drugs and alcohol, and combines the latest research with his discussions with thousands of parents and teens about the challenges that widespread access to drugs and alcohol present, and how parents can instill in their teens the will and skills to choose not to use. Califano’s insightful and lively guide is as readable as it is informative.

To order, click here:http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-to-Raise-a-Drug-Free-Kid/Joseph-A-Califano/9781476728438

 

Watch the video here: http://www.thv11.com/news/health/city-of-hot-springs-joins-lawsuit-against-pharmaceutical-companies-over-opioid-abuse/500839294

 

Brejamin Perkins, KTHV 9:23 PM. CST December 19, 2017 

The opioid crisis across the nation and here in Arkansas continues to strike conversation and concern. 

Tonight, the city of Hot Springs may be next in line to join a lawsuit aiming to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible. The city would join more than 100 others on board with the Arkansas Municipal League.

Since 2011, Arkansas has lost 265 million in societal loses.

“In 2013, we had the highest rate of teenagers prescribed opioids of any state in the nation,” said Don Zimmerman, Director of the Municipal League.

State leaders, cities and counties are taking the opioid crisis into their own hands.

“Our nation is in a crisis and Arkansas is right at the forefront of it,” he added.

Zimmerman thinks rural states are targeted most by pharmaceutical companies.

“This is a map from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing the number of opioid overdoses across the country,” said Zimmerman showing map of data that showed Arkansas at the center of it all.

The Association of Arkansas Counties is involved with the lawsuit as well. 66 have already been filed in federal court across the country.

“You probably saw the piece of 60 minutes on CBS the night before last where they were talking about this crisis and how the federal government tried to deal with one of the big manufactures. They got a small settlement,” he said.

Right now, Zimmerman isn’t sure if something similar could happen in Arkansas but hopes the lawsuit pushes positive action.

“We anticipate that we’re going to have the vast majority of cities and counties in this litigation. Hopefully we’ll have them all,” said Zimmerman.

Last year about 1.7 million opioid prescriptions were issued in the state.

“The highest in Arkansas is 177 prescriptions per 100 people in Green County, Garland County is right there with them at 176,” he added.

Next month there will be a meeting in Fort Smith, where the Arkansas Municipal League anticipates more cities and counties will join litigation.

© 2017 KTHV-TV

From: KATV Ch. 7 News www.katv.com

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — A coalition of Arkansas municipalities has filed a federal lawsuit against some of the world’s biggest opioid manufacturers and distributors, accusing the companies of creating a public health crisis in Arkansas and across the country by deceptively marketing painkillers and persuading doctors to over-prescribe the drugs. 

The Arkansas Municipal League filed the suit on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. The suit accuses the companies of “borrowing a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook” by downplaying the risks of using opioids — addiction, in particular — and overstating the benefits of using the drugs.

The 13 listed defendants are some the biggest companies in a global multi-billion dollar industry. They include Johnson & Johnson; Purdue Pharma; Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which is based in Belgium; Cardinal Health; McKesson Corporation, and Activis Pharma, which is based in Ireland.

The 72-page lawsuit says the defendants “formed an opioid marketing enterprise in violation of Arkansas law for the purpose of illegally promoting the widespread use of opioids for chronic pain.”

It continues: “Arkansas is now awash in opioids and engulfed in a public health crisis the likes of which have never been seen before.”

“This epidemic, fueled by opioids lawfully prescribed by doctors, has resulted in a flood of prescription opioids available for illicit use or sale (the supply), and a population of patients physically and psychologically dependent on them (the demand),” the suit says. “And when those patients can no longer afford or legitimately obtain opioids, they often turn to the street to buy prescription opioids or even heroin.”

Arkansas has the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reported the rate to be 114.6 opioid prescriptions per 100 people. The national average is 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people.

There were about 108 opioid-related deaths in Arkansas last year, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

A rise in opioid overdoses has led law enforcement agencies across the state, from Benton police to Arkansas State Police, to begin carrying naloxone, a anti-overdose drug better known by its brand name, Narcan.

The state has also taken action. Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced in September that pharmacists would no longer be required to write a prescription to dispense naloxone.

The Arkansas Municipal League lawsuit is the latest in a wave of litigation that cities and counties have filed against drug-makers as opioid overdoses and deaths have surged across the country.

Chicago, Seattle and Indianapolis are among the cities that have sued on grounds similar to the municipal league’s lawsuit, according to reports. Hospitals have also sued the drug-makers.

Earlier this year, a man filed a federal class-action lawsuit in Fayetteville against several of the drug-makers named in the municipal league lawsuit.

More than 400 cities and towns including North Little Rock, Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Jacksonville are part of the Arkansas Municipal League. The group’s lawsuit seeks punitive damages, and for drug-makers’ “scheme of false representations and concealments of material fact regarding the use of opioids” to be declared illegal.

Little Rock attorney Brent Moss, along with North Little Rock attorneys John Wilkerson and Mark Hayes, filed suit on the group’s behalf. They had not returned a call seeking comment late Wednesday afternoon.

Spokesmen for the drug companies named as defendants could not be immediately reached for comment.

 

http://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-municipalities-file-federal-suit-against-opiod-manufacturers

By Fox Business

As the opioid drug epidemic spreads, so does its economic impact, with estimates now suggesting the crisis is costing the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars. The White House says the true cost of the opioid drug epidemic in 2015 was $504 billion, or roughly half a trillion dollars.

In an analysis to be released Monday, the Council of Economic Advisers says the figure is more than six times larger than the most recent estimate. The council said a 2016 privatestudy estimated that prescription opioid overdoes, abuse and dependence in the U.S. in 2013 cost $78.5 billion. Most of that was attributed to health care and criminal justice spending, along with lost productivity.

The council said its estimate is significantly larger because the epidemic has worsened, with overdose deaths doubling in the past decade, and that some previous studies didn’t reflect the number of fatalities blamed on opioids, a powerful but addictive category of painkillers.

The council also said previous studies focused exclusively on prescription opioids, while its study also factors in illicit opioids, including heroin.

“Previous estimates of the economic cost of the opioid crisis greatly underestimate it by undervaluing the most important component of the loss — fatalities resulting from overdoses,” said the report, which the White House released Sunday night.

Last month at the White House, President Donald Trump declared opioid abuse a national public health emergency. Trump announced an advertising campaign to combat what he said is the worst drug crisis in the nation’s history, but he did not direct any new federal funding toward the effort.

Trump’s declaration stopped short of the emergency declaration that had been sought by a federal commission the president created to study the problem. An interim report by the commission argued for an emergency declaration, saying it would free additional money and resources.

But in its final report earlier this month, the panel called only for more drug courts, more training for doctors and penalties for insurers that dodge covering addiction treatment. It did not call for new money to address the epidemic.

More than 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, most involving a prescription painkiller or an illicit opioid like heroin.

As previously reported by FOX Business in October, Opiant Pharmaceuticals CEO Dr. Roger Crystal said his company is in the process of developing a vaccine to combat heroin addiction.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

The Office of National Drug Control Policy as part of its National Drug Control Strategy, called for an increase of prescription drug return and disposal programs as a means to curbing prescription drug abuse. Arkansas answered with nearly 30,000 pounds of medications. 

The Arkansas Prescription Drug Take Back Day, held on Oct. 28, 2017, had 152 law enforcement agencies collecting prescription medications at 171 sites across the state. Together, they collected a total of 28,035 pounds or 14 tons of old or expired prescription drugs, making the 14^th National Drug Take Back Day the most successful Take Back event to date for the state.

The total number of prescriptions collected national is estimated at 28.9 million. Arkansas ranks 11th nationally in weight collected and 5th in weight collected per capita.

“I am proud to see this record setting number for Arkansas that will have a lasting life-saving impact on our state physically as well as environmentally,” said Arkansas Drug Director Kirk Lane. “The hard work and partnerships that made this possible as well as the participation of Arkansans demonstrates that working together we can solve this issue.”

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson added, “The most important statistic in every year’s Take Back event is a number that we’ll never know – the number of tragedies we prevent and the lives we save by tossing out old prescription drugs at the collection sites. I applaud Director Lane for his leadership in making our state a safer place.”

Drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of unintentional injury deaths in the U.S., exceeding vehicle fatalities by 50 percent. More than 143 people in America die each day due to a drug overdose. In Arkansas, 1,067 people have died from a drug overdose in a 3-year span (319 in 2013, 356 in 2014, and 392 in 2015). Arkansas is also in the top 20 percent of states that prescribe the most painkillers per capita.

It is these facts that led to the death of Nicholas Kellar on April 14, 2017, a life cut too short by prescription drug abuse, and it is also a familiar story for too many families in the growing trend of opioid addiction leading to heroin addiction, that too often causes death. This year, the Arkansas Drug-Take-Back day was dedicated to the memory of Nicholas “Cheezy” Alexander Kellar who was born January 7, 1994 in Fort Gordon, Georgia. He was only 23 when he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose following a long, hard battle with addiction. Nicholas was the son of Rory and Suzanne Tipton.

Office of National Drug Control Policy request led to new Arkansas’ program

In early 2010, a coalition led by the State Drug Director, the Attorney General, both Arkansas Districts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and numerous federal, local, and state agencies, prevention professionals, and private organizations, launched an ongoing education program to encourage everyone to “Monitor, Secure, and Dispose” their prescription medications.

As part of the “Monitor, Secure, and Dispose” effort, the coalition organized Arkansas’s participation in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Take-Back Initiative, and take back events took place on September 25, 2010; April 30, 2011; October 29, 2011; April 28, 2012; September 29, 2012; April 27, 2013; October 26, 2013; April 26, 2014; and September 27, 2014. The DEA announced the discontinuation of the national initiative in September 2014, but an Arkansas Take Back event under the leadership of partners within the state was held on April 25, 2015. The DEA then reinstated the program nationally, and events since have been held on September 26, 2015; April 30, 2016; October 22, 2016; April 29, 2017; and October 28, 2017. DISCLAIMER: **Collectively, there have been 15 total Arkansas prescription drug take back events: one local and 14 national events. Results from the State Take Back in Spring 2015 were rolled into the total results for National Take Back 10 held September 26, 2015.

 Due to the commitment, dedication, and effort of the Arkansas Law Enforcement Community, its partners, and the multi-agency coalition, and due to excellent participation by Arkansans in all areas of the state, the take back events have been successful above and beyond all expectations. Altogether, the 14 Prescription drug take back events have produced the return of almost 132 tons of unneeded medications, estimated at 404.4 million pills.

STATISTICAL INFORMATION:

 

• Including all 14 events:  Arkansas ranks 3rd nationally in pounds collected per capita with 0.0882 pounds per person, slightly behind Wisconsin (0.0900 pounds per person) and Maine (0.2234 pounds per person).^* Despite being just 33rd in population among all states, Arkansas ranks 13th in total weight collected, and 69 more law enforcement agencies participated in Arkansas than the national average.

 

Arkansas’s average number of collection sites for each event was 181. The national per-state average was 108 per-event.

• * The four-state DEA region consisting of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi pooled a total weight of 398,701 pounds for all 14 Take Backs. Arkansas, despite being the least populated of the four:
•           1. Accounts for 66% of the total weight, collecting 128,607 pounds more than the other three states combined;
•           2. Averages more participating law enforcement agencies than the other three states combined; and,
  •     3. Accounts for 48% of the region’s total sites for Take Back 13.

 

• For Take Back 14, only:  Arkansas moved up 4 places, ranking 11th nationally in weight collected.

 

* Arkansas continued to rank 5^th in weight collected per person. Maine ranks #1, followed by Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Vermont, respectively.

* Arkansas moved up one place, ranking 10^th in the number of registered collections sites and moved up 4 places, ranking 8^th in the number of participating law enforcement agencies.

(Determined using 2016 census results)