Where opioids are concerned, ‘epidemic’ is an apt description

BASED on research conducted in Minnesota, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the number of opioid-related deaths in this country could be even higher than what’s been reported. This is troubling news for Oklahoma and other states battling this scourge.

CNN reported recently on findings by Dr. Victoria Hall, a CDC field officer based in Minnesota. Hall noted the case of a middle-aged man who died suddenly at home. He had been taking opioids long term for back pain. The medical examiner tested for and diagnosed pneumonia and a toxic level of opioids, but the death certificate listed only the pneumonia.

Hall’s researchers combed through Minnesota’s database of unexplained deaths, focusing on pneumonia cases because research has shown that opioid users are at increased risk of the illness. Of the 1,676 deaths from 2006 to 2015 that fit researchers’ criteria, 59 showed evidence of opioid use. Among those 59 deaths, 22 involved toxic levels of opioids.

Hall also found that from 2006 to 2015, more than half of the deaths in that state involving opioids had not been recorded in the state’s total.

She noted that there were about 33,000 opioid related deaths reported nationwide in 2015 — 90 per day, on average — and that while her data doesn’t offer a percentage of how many cases are being underestimated, it makes clear that “we are missing cases.”

“It does seem like it is almost an iceberg of an epidemic,” Hall said.

Heaven forbid. Oklahoma has seen the toll that opioids can take. Drug overdose deaths in the state increased eightfold from 1999 to 2012, and now often claim more lives each year than auto accidents.

In announcing the formation of a new commission to study opioid abuse, Attorney General Mike Hunter said there have been 2,684 reported opioid-related deaths in Oklahoma in the past three years, but the actual figure could be higher. Hunter's commission will recommend potential changes to state policy, rules or statutes to help combat this problem.

The Cherokee Nation has filed suit in its district court against wholesalers and retailers of opioids, arguing the companies haven’t done enough to prevent tribal members from getting their hands on illegally prescribed painkillers.

Earlier this year, in response to concerns about youth drug overdoses in the state, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services partnered to increase access to the drug naloxone for those 19 and younger. Naloxone can reverse an opiate overdose if administered in enough time.

The Opioid Overdose and Naloxone Distribution program makes the drug available at no charge to any Oklahoman 19 or younger, or to anyone who knows a youth who is at risk of overdose. This program is focused on 13 counties where opioid abuse has been most acute.

The partnership is a good idea. A story by The Associated Press notes that although the opioid abuse crisis in the United States has mostly involved adults, federal figures show roughly 1,100 teenagers start misusing painkillers every day. In 2015, 521 teens died from opioid abuse.

And to think, those totals may be higher — perhaps much higher. Where opioids are concerned, epidemic is not too strong a word.