Iowa Summit Discusses Heroin Crisis

CEDAR RAPIDS - Over the last two decades, a perfect storm has led to skyrocketing rates of opiate painkiller addiction and subsequent drug overdoses. Patients have increasingly abused addictive opioid pain-killers, and then transitioned to heroin, which may be cheaper and more accessible but often times more deadly.

The United States Attorney’s Offices for the Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa and the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) hosted its first-ever summit today to discuss interagency collaboration on this critical public health issue.  Around 200 professionals from the fields of law enforcement, medicine, treatment, and public health attended the summit at the University’s College of Public Health.

Nationally, drug overdoses caused 44,000 deaths in 2013, and over two million people misused prescription drugs. Iowa is not immune and has experienced alarming trends. From 2000 to 2013, the number of Iowans dying from prescription medication overdoses increased by 20 times. During that same timeframe, heroin overdose deaths increased from one to 20 per year.

A solution to this epidemic requires a coordinated effort by prevention specialists, treatment professionals, law enforcement and the entire medical community.

United States Attorney for Northern District of Iowa Kevin W. Techau offered his assessment of the importance of the summit, stating, “Heroin and opioid abuse takes a huge toll with Iowans every day. This summit is an excellent opportunity for the professionals who deliver treatment and prevention programs to come together with law enforcement to build partnerships that can effectively work together to impact these issues.” 

Award winning journalist, Sam Quinones, was the keynote speaker at the summit. His new book, “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” chronicles the rapid rise of prescription painkiller and heroin use in small town America. Federal and local authorities all over the county report the biggest drug epidemic today does not come from methamphetamines or cocaine, but heroin.  Quinones stated, “It should not be viewed as just an inner-city problem because huge profits are being made in suburbs across this country, and Iowa is not immune to this threat.”

Potential solutions to the national epidemic were highlighted at the summit, which included Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). This program educates prescribers and tracks overuse of prescriptions through state-run electronic databases. Another solution is the use of Naloxone, a drug that counteracts opiate overdoses. Some state PDMPs require prescribers to report the dispensing of controlled prescription drugs to patients, and this information could be shared more broadly.

Additional education, greater access to treatment, enhanced prescription drug take-back programs, and oversight of pain clinics can also be part of the solution to this complex problem.

Dr. Corinne Peek-Asa, Director of the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center said, “Interagency collaboration by law enforcement, the courts, healthcare, substance abuse treatment, public health, and education, among others, is essential to stem this growing tide of heroin and opioid abuse.”

Learn more about today’s heroin epidemic by visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heroin.

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