Latest news with #2024DrugOverdoseFatalityReport
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
KY's GOP attorney general travels to border to show solidarity with Trump crackdown
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman speaks during a press conference with the Republican Attorneys General Association at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Screenshot via YouTube) Kentucky Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman joined some of his counterparts from other states at the U.S. border with Mexico Wednesday to back Trump administration efforts to bolster security at the site. In a press conference live streamed by the Republican Attorneys General Association, Coleman said the attorneys general heard in an earlier briefing that during the Biden administration, the border had an average of 1,500 illegal crossings a day, now down to an average of four a day — the result, Coleman said, of 'solid leadership' by President Donald Trump. Coleman pointed to Trump administration efforts to tackle smuggling illegal drugs like fentanyl across the border and thanked border agents for their work. In 2024, 1,410 Kentuckians died from a drug overdose, according to the 2024 Drug Overdose Fatality Report. While that report found Kentucky's overdose deaths have declined over the last three years, the state still has one of the highest rates of opioid use disorder in the United States. 'The lack of border security has resulted in empty chairs at kitchen tables, empty seats at pews and workers not clocking in in the Commonwealth of Kentucky,' Coleman said. Ahead of the press conference, Coleman said in a post on X that he and the other attorneys general are joining Trump 'to secure the southwest border and keep deadly drugs and violent criminals out of Kentucky.' Coleman led a coalition of attorneys general earlier this year asking Trump administration officials via a letter for greater scrutiny of an import pilot program, Entry Type 86. It allows small packages to enter the U.S. with minimal customs screening. A press release from Coleman's office argued the program could be 'used by adversaries and drug traffickers to flood deadly fentanyl into the United States.' The Republican Attorneys General Association, or RAGA, backs Republican attorneys general candidates across the country. Coleman, who was elected as Kentucky's attorney general in 2023, ran on national issues like securing the southwest border. Last year, he was among Republican attorneys general and Kentucky politicians voicing solidarity with Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott against the Biden administration over blocking U.S. Border Patrol access to part of the border with Mexico. This year, Coleman joined other Republican attorneys general in court to back the Trump administration's efforts to deport Venezuelan migrants. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
KY still pays price for one of nation's highest rates of opioid use disorder, says new report
A Narcan vending machine in the exit lobby of the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) Kentuckians living with addiction can call Kentucky's help line at 833-859-4357. Narcan, which can help reverse overdoses, is available at pharmacies for sale and through some health departments and outreach programs for free. Even though overdose deaths have declined over the last three years, Kentucky still has one of the highest rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) in the United States, according to a national report released Tuesday. 'The cost of addiction: Opioid use disorder in the United States' shows Kentucky is one of four states where the rate of opioid use disorder is higher than 2.5% of the population aged 12 or older. The others are New Hampshire, Nevada and Massachusetts. Margaret Scott, an author of the study from Avalere Health, said the estimate is based on the National Survey on Drug Use. The report doesn't look at factors that might lead to higher or lower rates of cases. 'We did rely on the national figures from the national survey, but this is self reported cases of opioid use disorder, so it is possible that individuals in those states are more likely to self report,' she said. In 2024, 1,410 Kentuckians died from an overdose, according to the 2024 Drug Overdose Fatality Report. In 2023, there were 1,984 overdose deaths, which was a decrease from the 2,135 lost in 2022. 'It is encouraging to see the number of overdose deaths decreasing,' Scott said. 'We're still seeing 80,000 overdose deaths in the country. It's hard to say what is contributing to that decline (in Kentucky), but we do know that OUD is still a significant problem.' Ben Mudd, the executive director of the Kentucky Pharmacists Association, said Kentucky does a lot right when it comes to diagnosing and treating addiction. 'There's been a huge focus on harm reduction and naloxone distribution and I think that is why we've seen the decrease in overdose deaths,' Mudd told the Lantern. But that intervention, which can reverse an overdose, 'doesn't necessarily stop new cases.' 'Those cases still exist,' Mudd said. 'There's so much naloxone out there, people are educated, perhaps people aren't using alone, things like that. All of those programs that have been put in place have led to fewer overdoses, but not necessarily a reduced number of people with opioid use disorder.' Tuesday's report is mostly interested in the costs surrounding OUD and the economic impact of addiction. 'Some of the costs that we estimated included things like lost income taxes based on the lost productivity for businesses as well as employees' lost wages. We looked at property, client crime from OUD, as well as different types of costs to the state and local governments,' Scott said. 'Those costs included things like Medicaid direct costs for substance use treatment, as well as those lost income taxes and corporate taxes, and then, of course, the criminal justice costs, which would include police presence, courts, jails, all of those things.' In Kentucky, OUD costs big bucks, according to the report: Kentucky has one of the highest rates of opioid use disorder in the nation. Opioid use disorder costs Kentucky about $95 billion, with an average cost per case of $709,441. State and local governments bear more than $2 billion in costs, primarily driven by criminal justice expenses and lost tax revenue. The state/local per capita OUD cost is among the highest nationally, between $400-$500 per resident annually. OUD-related costs in Kentucky are more than 6% of the state's gross domestic product. 'Our study shows that barriers to care include physician stigmatizing and expressing reluctance to treat OUD patients, inadequate provider education and training, geographic distances to treatment locations, and social stigma,' Scott said. Medicine treatment pays off in the long run, the report says, as it 'has been shown to reduce cravings, increase abstinence from opioids and reduce morbidity and mortality, thereby making it a key component for addressing the economic and public health consequences of OUD.' Treatments can include medications and therapy. Methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone are treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration for OUD management. 'As states and local governments explore new strategies to reduce healthcare costs, encouraging public health, governments and payers to prioritize OUD treatments can lead to greater savings,' Michael Ciarametaro, managing director at Avalere Health, said in a statement. This is especially true for the formerly incarcerated, who live 'opioid naive' behind bars and may, upon release, take the same dose they did before being incarcerated and not have the resistance to handle it, Mudd explained. 'If you're incarcerated, you hopefully don't have access to opioids. But when you leave that facility, many folks go back to the same routine that they were in before, the same environment they were in before,' he said. Kentucky has taken aggressive steps to treat and prevent addiction. The latest Drug Overdose Fatality Report showed that for 2024: $29.8 million was distributed in grant and pass-through funding from the state Office of Drug Control Policy. 170,000 doses of Narcan were distributed. 84 syringe exchange program sites served 27,799 unique participants. 142,312 Kentuckians received addiction services through Medicaid. 17,399 Kentuckians received treatment paid by the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort. 17,984 Kentuckians received recovery services like housing assistance, employment services, transportation and basic needs services in their community paid by the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort. 3,329 incoming calls were made to the KY HELP Call Center with 14,087 outgoing follow up calls. 21 counties are certified as Recovery Ready Communities representing 1,495,518 Kentuckians. There's still some stigma when it comes to seeking treatment, Mudd said. 'There are folks, even within my profession, that think that this is just a pill mill,' Mudd said. A 'constant turnover' of patients is a 'real thing' and 'a concern of health care providers across the state.' 'It's the nature of addiction and folks with OUD,' he said. 'It's hard to differentiate at the pharmacy counter: 'Is this patient truly in recovery, or is this patient seeking this product so that they can sell it or trade it or whatever for illicit drugs?' And that's tough for pharmacists to make that determination.' Some won't dispense the treatments, he said, while others say, ''Hey, I want to make sure, just like Naloxone (Narcan), that we see this as a vehicle to help people. Some will use it, some will misuse it, some will divert it.'' Meanwhile, he said, the pharmacist association is focused on making sure pharmacies are 'good access points' for treatments because, especially in rural areas, people may be able to access a pharmacy much easier than a doctor's office. 'If your prescriber, physician, nurse practitioner is 45 minutes an hour away, what we're trying to do is break down those barriers,' Mudd said. 'These products are not available at every drugstore in Kentucky. They're not stocked at Walgreens. They're not stocked at your local independent pharmacy. But we know those are good access points.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kentucky fatal overdoses decreased again in 2024
Narcan is an opioid reversal treatment. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd). For the third year in a row, Kentucky saw a decrease in fatal drug overdoses, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday. Still, 1,410 Kentuckians died from an overdose last year, according to the 2024 Drug Overdose Fatality Report, which was released Thursday. 'That's 1,410 too many people that we lost,' Beshear said. 'These are people's friends and family members, each one a child of God taken from us far too soon.' In 2023, Kentucky had 1,984 overdose deaths, which was a decrease from the 2,135 lost in 2022. Black Kentuckians also saw a decrease in 2024, a reversal from previous years. In 2024, 170 Black Kentuckians died from a drug overdose, a decrease from 259 in 2022 and 264 in 2023. The report does not break down deaths across all races. It shows 1,216 of the 2024 deaths were white Kentuckians, 170 were Black and 24 were of an 'other' race. This decrease means 'that this good news has come for all of our Kentucky communities,' Beshear said. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, is still a key culprit in killing Kentuckians. Fentanyl was present in 62% of the 2024 deaths and methamphetamine was present in 51%, according to the report. 'Those two continue to be the most prevalent and ultimately most deadly drugs found in overdoses,' Beshear said. The counties with the highest rates of fatal drug overdoses were Lee, Knott, Breathitt, Powell and Estill, according to the report — all Eastern Kentucky counties. The age range most affected were Kentuckians 35-44, with 379 deaths in that age range. Five children aged 4 or under died from drug overdose in 2024; fewer than 5 died between the ages of 5-14. Van Ingram, the executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, said 'we still lost 1,400 Kentuckians, and so our work's not finished, not by a long shot, it's just time to get back to work.' Beshear cited prevention efforts such as Narcan distribution, syringe exchange programs and treatment recovery programs in driving the numbers down. The report says that for 2024: $29,754,033 was distributed in grant and pass-through funding from the Office of Drug Control Policy. 170,000 doses of Narcan were distributed. 84 syringe exchange program sites served 27,799 unique participants. 142,312 Kentuckians received addiction services through Medicaid. 17,399 Kentuckians received treatment paid by Kentucky Opioid Response Effort. 17,984 Kentuckians received recovery services like house assistance, employment services, transportation and basic need services in their community paid by Kentucky Opioid Response Effort. 3,329 incoming calls were made to the KY HELP Call Center with 14,087 outgoing follow up calls. 21 counties now certified as Recovery Ready Communities representing 1,495,518 Kentuckians. Kentuckians living with addiction can call Kentucky's help line at 833-859-4357. Narcan, which can help reverse overdoses, is available at pharmacies for sale and through some health departments and outreach programs for free. The legislature decriminalized fentanyl test strips in 2023, meaning Kentuckians can use them to legally check substances for the presence of fentanyl. 'Today's news should be very meaningful to all Kentuckians, and it ought to tell us that an epidemic that arose in our time, we should be able to defeat in our time,' Beshear said. 'This is not something we should leave for our kids and our grandkids. This is something we should continue to strive to do better, better, better at addressing.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
