This editorial first appeared in the Ketchikan Daily News:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an unhappy situation.<\/p>\n
Gov. Bill Walker has issued a disaster declaration for Alaska\u2019s opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n
Alaskans are dying as opioid abuse expands across the state.<\/p>\n
Emergency medical staff in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Kenai, Fairbanks and Juneau administered a medication that blocks or reverses a narcotic overdose 1,315 times over the past two years. The medication is naloxone.<\/p>\n
The communities listed above, as well as others, have established opioid working groups in an effort to stop opioid deaths. But the effort comes with a cost, which most cannot afford.<\/p>\n
By declaring the opioid epidemic, Gov. Walker says the state will be able to provide standing medical orders for communities to distribute naloxone to affected communities and individuals.<\/p>\n
The cost, according to Walker, is about $4 million. The money can be acquired through federal grants, including a five-year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration grant for naloxone distribution. Department of Health and Social Services funds will be available, too.<\/p>\n
But the state\u2019s Disaster Relief Fund and its general fund won\u2019t be spent on this particular disaster. Nor is the Legislature being asked for supplemental appropriations.<\/p>\n
Alaska\u2019s opioid-related deaths were more than double the rate of the whole United States in 2012, Walker says, with the heroin death rate over 50 percent higher. The number of heroin-related deaths quadrupled between 2009 and 2015. Plus, Alaska has documented cases of fentanyl and new synthetic opioid deaths in 2015.<\/p>\n
Opioids include the illegal drug heroin, but also prescription drugs \u2014 for example codeine, fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone and hydrocodone.<\/p>\n
This is a disaster for Alaska. Gov. Walker\u2019s declaration will allow Alaskans to seek help. That\u2019s a start, but it\u2019s only the beginning. The battle to prevent and keep people off addictive opioids is a journey worth taking, but it\u2019s still a long one.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the only way to eventually save Alaska lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"