Countermeasures Season 1 Bonus Episode Podcast Transcript: The Role of Government in Combating the Opioid Crisis
Congressman Dave Joyce [00:00:02] But unfortunately, it’s wreaked havoc on communities throughout Ohio and our country. And Ohio is continuously ranked as one of the top five states for the highest number of opioid overdose deaths. They’re starting to make a dent, if you will, in some progress moving forward. But it seems the pandemic created the surge again, and we were getting to lose more and more people. I won’t say just young people, but I think it goes across broad swaths of our population who have unfortunately succumbed to it. And now with the flow of fentanyl and it’s becoming a bigger problem.
Narrator [00:00:40] This is Countermeasures brought to you by Emergent. Join us as we explore the shifting, complex world of the opioid crisis. In each episode, we’ll hear from makers of positive change as they recount personal narratives of loss and perseverance and offer a way forward to a better future. In the final episode of this season of Countermeasures, you’ll be hearing from Congressman Dave Joyce, representative from Ohio’s 14th congressional district. Congressman Joyce has witnessed how his district has been affected by the opioid epidemic and the influx of fentanyl since he took office in 2013. But he and other members of Congress are working on legislation to equip communities and first responders to fight back. You’ll also hear from Jessica Hulsey, founder of the Addiction Policy Forum. Both Congressmen Joyce and Jessica are advocates for ensuring we are combating the opioid epidemic at a nationwide and policy level. Jessica joined Countermeasures for a third episode on supporting patients and families in crisis. If you’d like to hear more from Jessica, we encourage you to take a listen. Congressman Joyce is a former prosecutor of 25 years, an experience which made him very familiar with the effects that the opioid epidemic is having on communities.
Congressman Dave Joyce [00:02:02] When I first got here, we created a group of bipartisan former prosecutors, and we went around the room to try to figure out where we could be that had the most impact with our expertise. And to a person, it all came back to have a problem with opioids. And everybody had stories of it. Everybody knew somebody who was lost or had issues. And so from that, we we’ve tried to figure out areas in which we could help stop the flow and target the the help of individuals who were addicted to it. All came the conclusion that this was not your 28 day dry out of alcohol. This was going to take much longer. Six, nine months, two years for people to get on the other side, if you will, from what’s happened. So it was important that we do that, and it’s only gotten so much worse would because of the tragic flow of fentanyl into our country.
Narrator [00:02:59] He has seen how the increase in fentanyl and other illicit and adulterated drugs has impacted Ohio families.
Congressman Dave Joyce [00:03:06] Criminal organizations find ways to re-engineer the fentanyl in substances like xylazine and even more potent than standard fentanyl are more addictive and more lethal at far less doses. I mean, they show you the three specs all look like grains of salt would be enough to kill somebody. In a, you know, it happened a couple of years ago. It really broke my heart. A couple of Ohio State University students is young women went out and procured what they thought to be Adderall in preparation for their taking their final exams, and it was in fact fentanyl. And they both died of an overdose. Now, granted, they shouldn’t have been out there getting it in the first place because they weren’t getting a prescription from a doctor filled at a pharmacy. But the unfortunate byproduct of that is death. And these young kids on campuses throughout the country are being subjected to this from ruthless drug dealers that are out there. So I just want to make sure that we get the message out far and wide. If you haven’t got a prescription from doctor you filled at a pharmacy, don’t ingested because you just don’t know what it is. So one of the things that I’ve done since I’ve taken over as the chairman of Homeland Security appropriations was working with my Senate counterparts, and Senator Murphy and Senator Britt, myself and Henry Cuellar. And we want to target fentanyl and go after the crack down on it and go after the people who were supplying it.
Narrator [00:04:29] As part of his work to combat the opioid epidemi, Congressman Joyce serves as the co-chair of the House Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus. This bipartisan group is made up of over 50 members of Congress committed to advancing solutions to the country’s multifaceted opioid crisis.
Congressman Dave Joyce [00:04:48] Serving as a co-chair, I work with a bipartisan group of legislators to try to advance legislation to handle the crisis. And we talk about a little bit before was the idea that, you know, treatment is important, and the lengths of treatment are different than any drug up to this point. But it’s also important to get people to understand and accept things like naloxone, which, you know, we had to introduce to the schools to combat this unforeseen grant, provide grant funding to public schools that can be used to purchase and store it, for the use in event of an on campus overdose. You got to be ready to deal with it wherever it is. And I think it’s important for government first responders to have the access to it so that as they come upon these tragic circumstances, they can do something about it.
Narrator [00:05:37] He has also introduced the Stop Pills That Kill Act.
Congressman Dave Joyce [00:05:41] In a current law, individuals who manufacture illicit methamphetamine are subject to major criminal penalties, but the same penalties do not exist for individuals that are doing this with illicit fentanyl. Stop Pills That Kill Act will help fix this loophole in the federal law. It’s bipartisan legislation that’s also bicameral. We got senators on board with this as well. It increases the criminal penalties and individuals who created this and the criminals that are manufacturing the fentanyl is changing in our laws need to reflect those changes. And these people need to be held accountable under the law.
Narrator [00:06:15] Jessica Hulsey’s goal when she founded the Addiction Policy Forum was to educate legislators about the realities of substance use. The Addiction Policy Forum has since expanded to include more direct services.
Jessica Hulsey [00:06:29] So when I first created APF, I did a lot of policy work, came from Capitol Hill doing work around drug policy and criminal justice policy, and really wanted to bring more patients, caregivers and individuals impacted by addiction into the fold to inform the issue, to create more resources, to bring more evidence based practice into kind of that policy arena. And we still do some of that work, but it really has expanded in the last, you know, eight years or so. We do a lot more direct services. We do a lot more research at APF. We do a lot more translation of knowledge. Because as I’ve we’ve been digging in and sort of jumping into this field, one of the main gaps is the lack of understanding the science and innovations and new strategies and solutions that are available. So we modify and change direction and jump in quickly when we find an area that is missing in our field where we can be of service. We don’t want to duplicate efforts. There’s so many amazing organizations and leaders in this field, but we do want to make sure that we’re filling those gaps. And one of the principles that I talk about with our team and we’re at when we’re out in our communities or with our instructors and our network of members and advocates and practitioners is trying to build the things that we wish existed. Right. There’s many things that I wish my family that my mom and my dad had available to them when they were literally in middle school, starting to struggle with substance use disorder, both coming out of homes that struggled with very severe alcohol use disorder. And we know that that’s a significant risk factor and adverse childhood experience. So what could have been different for them? What services programs, interventions knowledge knowledge transfer could have assisted? What are the pieces that we need to better integrate this into the health care system? What are the things that patients and caregivers need? What do they need to know?
Narrator [00:08:33] She continues to work to ensure the opioid epidemic is being confronted at the federal level. She says that legislators are often some of the most open to education about opioid use and dependency.
Jessica Hulsey [00:08:45] You know, it’s interesting, since I’ve, I’ve been doing this work for so long, and APF has been on the ground working with policymakers since we started the organization at the federal level, at the state level, at city and county level. And our federal lawmakers and policymakers can be some of the most open to solutions and a science pathway and looking at this through a health lens. I think if I was looking at our our full accomplishments list, we’ve worked on legislation that really has a response within health care and is expanding health care resources to addressing addiction at the federal level. And it has been wonderful to see, you know, an open response and a really sort of a focus and a willingness to address this and learn about innovations and kind of disease framework of addiction from our federal lawmakers. And that’s across both sides of the aisle. And I think Congress is in some ways one of the most educated bodies when it comes to addiction after some of the legislation that they pushed through and some really meaningful work.
Narrator [00:09:52] Part of this work was changing the way we talk about opioid dependency. A recent program was tested in Ohio with promising results.
Jessica Hulsey [00:10:01] So we’re really proud of the work that we’ve done to tackle the stigma around addiction. We have developed two novel stigma interventions. The first program was created for families and caregivers as well as the general public, and was tested in in Ohio in 23 communities. And I’m really proud of that work, because when you take the time to properly educate anyone, whether you’re a practitioner or a caregiver, about the science of addiction, understanding change behavior and priorities, correcting myths and misinformation that is so prevalent when it comes to addiction in the US. You really see a corresponding change in levels of stigma when you reeducate. Right? And it’s not just education. We have a lot of misinformation, so we really need to deconstruct that and replace it with accurate information about SUD. We partnered with amazing clinicians and researchers in the fields to piece this intervention together. We have over 100 instructors that are providing this program on the ground in communities, and that program is called enCompass: A Comprehensive Training on Navigating Addiction. Our second stigma intervention, which we’re testing right now through our anti-stigma initiative, is for practitioners. So physicians, nurses, criminal justice practitioners, educators, child welfare really want this to be an educational program that is accessible and effective for anyone who works in a field that is going to come in contact with those with a substance use disorder, which is a lot of fields.
Narrator [00:11:36] As uncovered this season, first responders are critical to the fight against the opioid epidemic, and Congressman Joyce is ensuring responders have the technology they need to effectively and safely identify and handle dangerous drugs like fentanyl.
Congressman Dave Joyce [00:11:52] Well, you know, at first I’ve introduced that providing officers with electronic resources or the Power Act to provide state and local law enforcement with high tech devices to detect and identify the dangerous drugs, including fentanyl. So if they see something before you think of a powder as potentially being cocaine or meth or something else that wouldn’t necessarily produce a contact death. It’s important that they have the tools that are necessary so that they can interdict these drugs is there before they get into communities. But it also established a new grant program for the Department of Justice to help state and local law enforcement agencies secure this high tech and portable screening devices so that they can make these decisions right there in the field and prevent officers from getting overdosed or killed because of their doing this. The other thing is, you have a lot of officers, unfortunately, who are coming upon us with such regularity, and you have county morgues where they can facilitate, they get a bad batch of of this drug into a community, and it kills so many people at one time. It overloads their morgue. And so they’re getting renting refrigerated trucks just to store bodies. I mean, that’s so sickening. But, you know, it also has a lot of stress on those officers. So we’ve introduced the Fighting Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Act to direct the AJ to develop more evidence based programs that we made available to public safety officers and for the country to treat and address the PTSD that comes with having dealt with these folks.
Narrator [00:13:18] Ensuring that EMS organizations of all sizes have access to tools and training is another important aspect of this work.
Congressman Dave Joyce [00:13:25] Introducing the Protecting First Responders from Secondary Exposure Act help state and local governments purchase containment devices, which are used to help safely store those narcotics and prevent them preserve those for evidentiary use so we can prosecute the people who are bringing them in, but also to provide subsequent training to reduce the first responders risk of the secondary exposure to these lethal substances. EMS providers in the state of Ohio or or most part voluntary organizations and so these people are not necessarily trained the same way as an inner city department would be. So we introduced the SIREN Reauthorization Act, which would grants local EMS providers the ability to purchase new technology and supplies, including naloxone.
Narrator [00:14:13] Jessica is hopeful for the future and the changes she is seeing at a policy level. Bills like the ones introduced by Congressman Joyce play an important role in confronting the epidemic.
Jessica Hulsey [00:14:25] I think a really big policy when right now in our field is the shift to providing naloxone over the counter. This is a huge shift, and we’re really we don’t want that to take away the other distribution efforts and availability of free naloxone to high risk venues and high risk populations, and patients and caregivers and those who have access to our patient group. But it is a step in the right direction and anywhere that we can start to tear down barriers to treatment, to overdose, reversal, medications, to prevention access, to harm reduction services. These are all big wins.
Narrator [00:15:05] Congressman Joyce is one of the many members of Congress who is working to combat the opioid epidemic in their districts and at the national level. This work, along with the work by organizations like the Addiction Policy Forum, are making an impact on this crisis. To learn more about Congressman Joyce’s work or about the Addiction Policy Forum, please visit the links in the show notes. Thank you for listening to this season of Countermeasures. We hope these new episodes have exposed you to new ways of thinking about the opioid epidemic. Educated you about opioid dependency and giving you hope for the future. Thank you to all our guests this season for sharing their stories and experiences. Thank you for listening to this episode of Countermeasures. To learn more about what a Emergent is doing to address public health threats like the opioid crisis, visit emergentbiosolutions.com. If this episode resonated with you, consider rating and reviewing Countermeasures on your preferred podcast platform.