St. Louis County has received the first installment of about $45 million it is due from the $458 million opioid settlement that the state of Missouri reached with the three biggest U.S. drug distribution companies and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
The more than $4.8 million St. Louis County received Thursday was deposited into the Opioid Remediation Fund established to support the treatment of substance use or mental health conditions.
The landscape of the drug market has taken a daunting turn with the outpour of fentanyl on city streets, encouraging national health officials to push for approval of over-the-counter overdose medications in hopes of saving more lives.
“With these settlement funds, we have the opportunity to amplify and support treatment and prevention programs and save more lives from overdoses,” County Executive Dr. Sam Page said.
“In Missouri, St. Louis County leads the fight against the opioid epidemic through its prescription drug monitoring (PDM) program. The program is a statewide resource and is the only county level PDM program in the country.”
Substance use continues to be a major public health crisis in St. Louis County There were 343 opioid related deaths in 2021, equaling the total for 2020, which had been the highest on record.
Earlier this year when the settlement was announced, Page said the funds might be used to increase staff and space at the medical examiner’s office.
“Our community and our country have not prioritized mental health services and substance abuse treatment programs like it should have,” Page said.
“We have to make a decision as a community whether to put resources into that programming in making this more readily available.”
The St. Louis County Department of Public Health in May released a new Substance Use Action Plan, a comprehensive, broad based strategy to combat substance use over the next two years and beyond.
The plan aims to raise awareness about substance use, overdoses, and how our community is affected by them; prevent opioid use disorder and other substance use disorders; increase the availability of Narcan to rescue people during an overdose; increase the number of people connected to treatment with a focus on high-risk populations; and enable people in recovery to access recovery services and supports that increase quality of life.
“This plan came with input from nearly 40 partners, including the city Health Department. As we deepen the partnerships and work with the city and other counties in the bi-state region, we do so with the commitment to increased treatment and prevention and saving more lives from overdoses.
In St. Louis County, we have an opportunity to amplify these efforts by dedicating $48 million in opioid settlement funds to treatment and prevention programs,” Page said.
St. Louis County provides the drug naloxone, which is sold under the name Narcan, for free at all three public health centers as well as to inmate residents upon release from the Justice Center.
National Narcan campaign continues
While overdose totals have shown a slight decrease over recent years, the landscape of the drug market has taken a daunting turn with the outpour of fentanyl on city streets, encouraging national health officials to push for approval of over-the-counter overdose medications in hopes of saving more lives.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in conjunction with Whitman Walker medical center, held a recent press conference in honor of the agency’s “Overdose Prevention Strategy,” anniversary, celebrating national efforts to fight drug addiction and sharing goals for the future.
“The important piece that we need to understand [is] we are the most dynamic drug supply environment this nation and the world has faced to the tune that we are losing an American every five minutes around the clock. This is largely preventable,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, National Drug Control Policy director.
He said HHS is working to increase access to naloxone, or its brand name Narcan, which serves as an antidote when people are overdosing on opioids and can be integral in combating fatalities.
“It’s critically important and I’m so glad that from President Biden on down, we are all committed to ensuring this is a priority for the nation to save people’s lives first and to help them get into treatment,” said Gupta.
Between March 2021 to March 2022, overdose rates reached roughly 100,000 lost lives across the country, as local opioid overdose rates have surpassed homicide rates for the year. Still today, barriers continue to exist in the height of the opioid epidemic as health agencies spot the desperate need of easy-reaching access to naloxone and Narcan treatments for daily overdoses, similar to the easy availability of defibrillators for smoke alarms.
The FDA has recently put in a federal register notice to produce naloxone for over-the-counter availability. This register makes clear the requested processes needed to take place, while opening applications for companies who can mass produce the overdose-reversing medication, and widely distribute it.
Research and evidence-informed tools are providing better solutions to the crisis.
“At the end of the day, each one of our loved ones deserves the chance to survive, and strive,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra concluded during the press conference.
Lindiwe Vilakazi of the Washington Informer contributed to this report.