DENVER – The House committee on public health on Friday greenlighted a lifesaving treatment program that offers medication to break opioid addiction and ease withdrawal.
The drug program would expand by five times a 2017 pilot initiative that offered medication-assisted treatment for drug addiction in Pueblo and Routt counties.
Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate President Leroy Garcia, would add several outpatient treatment centers that offer medication and therapy in the San Luis Valley, where death rates from drug addiction are the highest in Colorado.
Bipartisan support in the House and Senate has been nearly unanimous, but lawmakers from southern and eastern Colorado said Friday that its focus on the San Luis Valley would cut out many other areas, including Montezuma County, that are grappling with high addiction and death rates.
“This is a 64-county problem, but there is no 64-county solution,” said Dr. Robert Valuck with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
The Senate has approved the bill but cut its funding by half, from $5 million to $2.5 million. It now heads the House Appropriations Committee.
The bill does fund two facilities outside the San Luis Valley, but counties such as Montezuma, Crowley and Morgan – all with severe opioid epidemics – will have to apply to host them. A University of Colorado center that focuses on substance abuse disorders will pick the two additional counties based on demonstrated need.
Montezuma County’s need is high – in 2016, the county’s overdose death rate was between 38 and 52 people for every 100,000, among the highest rates in the state. As of January, nearly half the county jail’s 90 inmates struggled with drug addiction. The jail has one registered nurse, and the county relies on donated supplies of Narcan, an overdose reversal drug now carried by deputies.
The pilot program’s medication-assisted treatment can be a game changer for people who are struggling to shake opioid addiction. The program can offer medications that treat cravings for opioids and withdrawal symptoms, which can be fatal. Once withdrawal symptoms are managed, patients can focus on counseling and recovery. Cortez has two clinics that offer medication-assisted treatment – the Cortez Recovery Center and the Axis Health System Center, which sees existing patients only.
At an early March meeting of Cortez and Montezuma County officials, County Administrator Shak Powers said the county must tackle its opioid crisis on its own.
“If the state’s not going to do anything about it ... maybe the city and the county need to team up and do something without the state,” Powers said.
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