During the three-minute public comment time of the Elk City Commissioners meeting on June 21st, at their regular meeting, Steve Berry, ICADC, Western Oklahoma Opioid Coalition Coordinator, and Beckham Associate County District Judge Michelle Roper spoke about possible ways the opioid litigation funds could benefit western Oklahoma communities. The two talked about the dollars that will be dispersed from the settlements with Johnson and Johnson and three other opioid distributors which will go to the city and other communities.
Berry spoke first and told the commissioners that he represents the western Oklahoma Opioid Prevention Consortium along with the Beckham County Drug Prevention Coalition. He had received an unofficial copy of the distributor settlement offer from various companies that will be expected within the upcoming year.
“The unofficial settlement copy that I got said that 85 percent of the funds received must be used on abatement strategies. There are nine areas of work that was suggested,” Berry explained.
Those areas include - to broaden the access to naloxone or Narcan; to increase the use of medications to treat opioid use disorder; provide treatment and support during pregnancy and the postpartum period; expand services for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome; fund warm hand-off programs and recovery services; improve treatment in jails and prisons; enrich prevention strategies; expand harm reduction programs; and support data collection and research.
Berry said that there is concern about duplication of services in the area for the distribution of Narcan that the coalition provides for free.
“There’s no point in spending that money to do something that is already being done. So, we don’t want to duplicate services. Second thing is we want to look at those strategies. Are there gaps, or are there things that we’re not doing locally? So as a coalition, what we would like to do is some focus groups to look at the nine strategies,” Berry said.
He pointed out that there is a prescription medication lockbox available for people taking any type of prescribed medication that they are afraid might be diverted by someone in the household or mistakenly double their dose. The medicine can be locked up.
“We have also done the drug take back days so people can bring their expired or unused medication and drop them off. The police department has supported us, and they monitor the location. Bureau of Narcotics collects it at the end of the day,” Berry continued.
The distribution of Narcan can help save lives, and the Good Samaritan laws protect people from administering it if there is someone passed out or in their home. They also provide training for individuals and groups for the use of Narcan.
“There are fentanyl test strips that will test persons who use illegal drugs so they can test for the presence of fentanyl prior to use. The suggestion is that they either use a smaller amount, or not at all, but we know that will probably not happen,” he said.
Berry brought a lockbox for the commissioners to see. It is a fixture that can attach to a wall in a school, library, or public building. It provides access to Narcan. There’s also a CPR shield in the kit and nitrile gloves to prevent absorption. The one he brought is equipped with an alarm system on it to prevent tampering. He also pointed out that all of these things are free because they are a non-profit organization.
Berry concluded by inviting the commissioners to join the strategic planning sessions. Judge Roper then addressed them. She began by telling them that she was there to support Berry and the coalition.
“I’m here today to give a perspective. Hopefully it’s a meaningful perspective, a bird’s eye view of what the opioid issue is in our community, and why it really can be helpful in preventing the opioid settlement is really for the abatement in prevention. It should be recognized that prevention starts with treatment of our current problem, because addiction does beget addiction,” Roper began.
She said that opioids are battling methamphetamine to be the number one substance abuse, and Elk City and Beckham County has been tagged by the Oklahoma Department of Health as one of the hot cities and counties that has two major problems, opioids and marijuana.
“I think one out of ten cities in the state are determined to be hot cities,” she added.
Roper went on to identify three priorities that she believes need to be addressed. The first one was in the area of evaluations.
“First, evaluations right now for anyone to get treatment has to go to a place to get an evaluation, that is a substance use evaluation. That’s something to help them get into the treatment they may need. There is only one place in Elk City that does evaluations, that is Red Rock. There is a two-month waiting list,” Roper said.
The evaluation opens the door to treatment. Judges do not evaluate the individual that stand before them. It must be someone qualified to do the evaluation.
“We do not have enough people that are qualified to do evaluations. We need more people to do evaluations. There are certifications in our state that allow people to do these evaluations to link them into those services,” she said.
The second area Roper spoke about was concerning the defense against the problem. She balances between 100 and 200 people on a daily basis in the jail. It is two percent over capacity. She can document through the court system that there are people not getting treatment but remaining in the community using. Roper wants to deliver the locks to the law enforcement and to the schools.
“There are a lot of things that we can do, including pretrial services, that potentially has a misdemeanor and who is not going to have a felony and get them to drug court or harsh treatment. They can walk in the doors and get some pretrial services, which is case management and treatment options because they don’t know where to go,” she continued.
The third thing that the community needs is a detox center. There are few substance treatment centers in the area. Roper said that detox can save lives because the first two weeks it clears the system of fentanyl or opioids that detox will allow the person to get to a point of doing things on his/her own.
Roper thanked the commissioners for the time, although, they could not respond to either Berry or her. This seems to be the beginning of looking into abatement strategies. The opioid problem is here, and the funds from the litigation will help communities address the issues from the abuse of opioids. It is Berry and Roper’s efforts that will help western Oklahoma use those funds to address them head on.
