HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - The state government is in the midst of rolling out a multifaceted, statewide strategy to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic, but one of the biggest difficulties can be getting communities to buy in, according to the man leading the effort.
Tapped by Gov. Larry Hogan to serve as opioid emergency response coordinator last spring, Clay Stamp is a longtime emergency services professional.
But Stamp said he has been struck by “how very different this crisis is.”
“It’s tearing our communities apart wherever I go in Maryland,” he said. “You can’t logically reason why it’s happening, and why we can’t seem to affect it.”
Stamp gave a status report on the state’s efforts to western Maryland legislators gathered Thursday at Beaver Creek Country Club. Lawmakers from Washington, Frederick, Allegany and Garrett counties attended.
“It’s a crisis that carries ’a lot of stigma,’” Stamp said. “There are a lot of competing interests around it.”
The state’s balanced approach of prevention and treatment has been “a hard sell” in communities, he said.
There is also “a propensity for people to put their head in the sand,” Stamp said.
Yet 577 Marylanders died from overdoses in the first quarter of 2017, he said.
Hogan declared a state of emergency earlier this year in response to the crisis. Since then, Stamp’s office has pooled participation from 14 state agencies to coordinate the fight.
He said officials also have identified four strategies to:
- Raise and maintain the conversation surrounding opioid abuse to reduce stigma.
- Focus energy toward a balanced approach that includes prevention, protection and recovery.
- Use data to build and evaluate programs and projects.
- Persevere toward long-term expectations.
Likewise, there are four ultimate goals, including prevention, access to treatment, enforcement, through police and courts, and reducing the number of overdoses.
But most of the heavy lifting will be done through local “opioid intervention teams” in each county.
Hogan set aside funding in this year’s budget for the teams to use for programs in their own communities. That money is beginning to filter down to the local teams as their proposals are approved, he said.
A major emphasis will be to give local authorities more options for treatment as opposed to incarceration for addicts.
Police agencies “are excited about having an alternative to arresting people,” Stamp said.
Current care and treatment practices are being reviewed to find those that work best, with a goal of building a “continuum of care” to reach people who are addicted at key points, he said.
“The question is, ’When do they hit bottom?’” Stamp said.
But despite all these efforts, he said “the only way to overcome this is long term” by providing education through the school system to help prevent addiction in the first place.
Stamp said the federal government also needs to recognize the need to fight opioids, noting that the president should officially declare the crisis a national emergency.
“Time is not on our side,” Stamp said.
“Unfortunately, what we learned (today) is the same as what we heard before - we’re still in a trend the wrong way,” said Del. Brett Wilson, R-Washington. “More addictions are happening than less, and we are trying to find new ways to cope with it” by directing money to the appropriate agencies.
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Information from: The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Md., https://www.herald-mail.com
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