By Catherine Candisky, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – A new study of the the state’s opioid epidemic by Ohio State University researchers shows a staggering economic toll of $6.6 billion to $8.8 billion a year — about the same amount the state spends annually on K-12 education.
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And while treatment needs have skyrocketed, the state has not responded: It has the capacity to treat only 20 percent to 40 percent of the 92,000 to 170,000 Ohioans abusing or addicted to opioids. The shortage is especially acute in rural areas hardest hit by the drug crisis.
The 22-page report released Wednesday by researchers with the C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy at Ohio State found the state has done a good job cracking down on opioid prescriptions. But it pointed out that many addicts have switched to street drugs such as heroin, making expanded access to treatment the more pressing need.
The report comes virtually on the eve of President Donald Trump expected declaration of a national opioid emergency.
Ohio is among the nation’s leaders in opioid-related overdose deaths with a record 4,050 fatalities in 2016, a 33 percent increase from 2015.
“Enacting new laws to take down pill mills and lessen access to prescription opioid drugs alone isn’t going to fix the problem,” said Mark Partridge, chair and professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, and one of the report’s authors.
“We need a broader-based approach that includes working with physicians and hospitals in underserved areas to encourage providers to obtain the waiver required to prescribe opioid treatments to their patients. As it now stands, many people in rural areas of Ohio have extremely limited access to medication-assisted treatment, which is a particularly critical issue in the rural areas of southwest Ohio where opioid abuse rates are high, but local access to treatment is limited.”
During his campaign, Trump had pledged to make fighting addiction a top priority and, once in office, Trump convened a commission to study the problem, chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. And he has pledged to declare the crisis an emergency, freeing up additional money and resources.
But some advocates worry even that won’t make enough difference.