karen: the commonwealth continues to battle an opiate crisis. that is today on "cityline." [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] karen: hello, everyone. i am karen holmes ward should welcome to "cityline." we bring you this coverage as part of the ongoing coverage of the opiate crisis. it is no luggage just an epidemic sweeping across the commonwealth. governor charlie baker has declared a state of emergency and has vowed to change the way massachusetts treats and thinks

janet wu brought us this report. janet: the governor' s announcement began with janice mcgrory, who lost her daughter four years ago. >> she never took that first still thinking in a very short period of time she would be shooting heroin. she did not know about addiction. i did not know about the dangers of description drugs. janet: governor baker' s task force recommends $35 billion in funding for the fiscal year, including prescription monitoring by pharmacists and adding 100 treatment beds by this time next year. >> opioid likelihood of our children, siblings, relatives, and friends one person at a time. janet: massachusetts has a record of 6600 overdose deaths from opioids, 1000 just the start of 2015. health care providers as well as teachers, and athletes have to be educated.

prescribers who continue to unlawfully over-prescribed opioids in the state. we will work to investigate and end the practices. >> have doctors been overprotected by the system? >> it is probably at some point what i would call a light enforcement issue. karen: here in the studio with us is the commissioner of massachusetts department of public health, dr. monica burrell. commissioner burrell and the dth have addressed resources to this crisis. you will be with us for the entire half-hour. let' s talk more about the issues in the commonwealth. just how serious is it? commissioner burrell: thank you for having me today to discuss this critical issue. we know that it is a public health emergency. this is an issue not only in massachusetts but across america.

estimated over 1200 individuals dying from the opiate overdose in massachusetts. this is a 57% increase in just 2012. if we look back to 20 -- 2004, we have 66 deaths. since then we have lost 6500 individuals to this disease. karen: your numbers are solid. what is the process for gathering the data? he must' ve been a stunted by the high numbers. commissioner bharel: we need to make sure that we understand all of the components of the problem . there are the individuals who are affected by this, and their family members. and then how do we look at that as an aggregate and take the data and say what is really happening here? who is at risk for having an overdose and who is dying and

we have compiled data from death reports and the internal information that we have at the department of public health and worked to put together a report that now in a transparent fashion is released under governor baker' s leadership on a quarterly basis. individuals can see not only for the entire state of massachusetts but for regions and cities how many deaths there were from overdose. we are working to improve that to say that with the resources we have, how do we do more hotspotting. we make sure resources get to those individuals. karen: as we said, let' s be clear, this is an issue across the commonwealth. whether any communities that are more highly impacted than others? commissioner bharel: you know, it is in the unbelievable that you can' t speak to anybody who has not had to deal with this issue. it is in every community and across every social economic strata, and really, we'

it -- it is a concentrated issued many of our urban centers but it is really across the commonwealth that we are seeing it. karen: one death and one community versus several deaths in another community, the point is that something needs to be addressed. commissioner bharel: absolutely. karen: it' s not just the heroine problem. it often stems from the abusive prescription drugs, and elevate s to heroine. is that what your research is finding ? commissioner bharel: we' re talking about painkillers and relievers. i' ve seen the struggles that other individuals go through and the pathways people enter into a difficult struggle into addiction.

ve been struck by how many individuals -- the issue started in the doctor' s office, with the prescribed medication at all the medication they received from family member. oftentimes from that medication, individuals proceeded to heroine, which can be cheaper. karen: who is using those prescription drugs and does the researchers show that is impacting a certain demographic more than another? commissioner bharel: prescription drugs in a society -- this is an interesting question about pain and how we manage pain. there is a very important task that prescribers have been thinking about pain vs. public safety. we have a critical role to play in relieving suffering and pain but also a critical role to balance that with public safety. in massachusetts we have a really important tool in our toolkit to look at this, and that is the prescription monitoring program. with that program we are able to

give it to anybody in massachusetts, where they got the prescription, who the we get that information, that data, back to and send warnings to the so they are aware there is a potential problem here. i' ve heard that because of bias in health care, often suburban patients are prescribed pain medication more often than urban patients, and so therefore you find more the prescription drug abuse in the suburbs than you might in the city. commissioner bharel: you know, there is some truth to that in that -- what i can comment about that is that the face of addiction is multi-full. we sometimes have perceptions of what an addict looks like from of this. backgrounds can be addicted to

the real issue here is we can' be full of fight stereotypes of what addiction looks like. in any setting we have to make sure that the prescribers have the tools to see prediction the warning signs for addiction account. karen: you will be with us for the entire program. up next, a plan to provide to

r the wrong bed. r p you can both adjust the bed for the best sleep of your life. find the lowest prices of the season, going on now. #1 rated i8 bed. only at a sleep number store. karen: welcome back. just this past read, the

a company has reduced the price for a drug that is shown great success rate places like quincy. read lamberty has the story. >> she carries in her purse the one drug that counteracts the opioid. >> you never know where you could be one someone to be overdosing. reid : she used it to save the life of man who overdosed in all bathroom last year. >> he wasn' t breathing. reid: the cost for cities and towns buying narcan has skyrocketed. attorney general mark ely announced the first of its kind of deal in the nation to allow the state to buy narcan in bulk. >> do we need to do more?

available. reid: opioid for deaths a day last year. mother stands by the need to available at a lower cost. >> it did work, he did work well, it works quickly, and it a life. more chance to recover. the bulk purchasing program makes it easier and less expensive to do that. >> people can access it at a lower cost it will definitely lead to more lives being saved. karen: we continue with commissioner monica bharel. tell us more about narcan in this plan that attorney general morrow healy has put together. commissioner bharel: first, just to talk about narcan and what it

on the dangerous scale there is the lowering of the pressure and the decrease in breathing and the sedation that can lead to death. what narcan does -- it' s generic name is naloxone -- it reverses the effect of the opioids. this is literally a life-saving medication that in emergency situations, when someone is overdosing from an opiate, whether it be a painkiller, you can immediately reverse the effects. the power of narcan is that it can be done by anyone, by bystanders, families, first responders, medical personnel. i' ve used it myself and have seen multiple benefits and reverses of opioid overdoses. karen: how expensive is it to acquire the drug and how important is it for towns and

hand -- supply of this on hand? commissioner bharel: in massachusetts we have been at the forefront good since 2007 we have had bystander programs and grants through the department of public health offering bystanders using narcan kits. in 2010 we started offering into first responders. the individuals first with somebody who has had an overdose can have access to this life-saving drug. i think of it like an epinephrine pen. when someone has an allergy, you have enough an effort than, -- and epinephrine pen, it is a life-saving response. in massachusetts we have documented over 5000 reversals of opioid deaths from narcan . governor baker just requested the trust fund to be set up this year. we now have the municipal

karen: people who have allergies have a prescription for an event -- epipen. is it safe for an addict to have narcan? commissioner bharel: we need to get it out in our communities and distributed to families and friends who are suffering of addiction. it is that moment when someone is overdosed, it is quickly safe to use and reverse the desperate -- the death. karen: the fda has just approved oxycontin for children. what kind of risks does that bring? all opiates have risks to children and adults and one of the things we are working on as we look at these powerful medications is, again, how to measure pain relief that is needed for someone suffering from in stage cancer versus the public safety. one really important issue here is thinking about education. how do we make sure parents of children and adults know what

a decision to use them? karen: we will finish up the program with commissioner monica bharel of the massachusetts

karen: the opiate crisis has been identified. the next step is treatment and recovery. are there enough resources to bring the afflicted in and help them overcome the addiction? janet wu joins us again. janet: these are the faces of addiction, recovery, and hope for others. the staff of everyday miracles estimates that has been over 700

>> we had no stranger to seeing this but it has increased and the population is much younger. janet: the massachusetts department of public health updated their figures for overdose test to 1256 in 2014, 57% since 2012. >> the overprescribing of prescription medication, one. the lack of treatment on demand and wraparound services, that we continue to treat people in silos versus the whole person. janet: she says that mental health, homelessness, and addiction are all connected. that is the formula followed by the recovery centers. >> we know how to navigate the system, what detox to call. we all have beds. we know those little somebody without experience doesn' t know. janet: the nearest similar

another 10 recovery centers. karen: we continue our conversation with commissioner monica bharel public health. the opiate working group, which you are a part of, as for wayne points for targeting the epidemic. let' s go through what those points are. commissioner bharel: baker came in and put together a work group of 16 of us let' s understands problem and it. from that group we went and listened to over 1100 individuals across the commonwealth, gathered information, looked at the data that is available, and then came up with over 65 recommendations. those ruminations resulted in 19 actions, centered around a spectrum of thinking about addiction in the area of prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery, and how

lot of work to do. s talk about treatment first. there is been a push for more treatment in the areas hit by the epidemic. when talk about treatment, i would like us disease. in no other medical disease do we silo there is so much stigma about receiving treatment. in the area of treatment there are multiple things that work if we look at this as a chronic disease, just like in a diabetes, some people who have diabetes need to exercise and have change of their diet.

some people need to take injections. there is a spectrum of options suffering from addiction, there is a spectrum of options available, including medication-assisted therapy. more access to this treatment available. karen: one of the concerns is that people who say they want to turn. there are not enough beds to take them in. commissioner bharel: when we think about how to get individuals and treatment, we have developed a system that starts at the cute detox -- at acute detox. it would be multiple access situation. it is not like every diabetic who is feeling a little sick care unit. sometimes they need outpatient treatments. sometimes they need emergency.

addiction. it is a medical disease where we need to create a multiple access points and make sure that our providers are adequately trained to recognize and appropriately treat. karen: part of this is rethinking the whole process of addiction of who is an addict and what needs to be done. commissioner bharel: if we refrained this to a medical disease it helps to decrease the stigma and the silos within the medical systems of that we are working together to holistically care for an individual and think about what it is and how we look at the other factors like the social determinants of health that are confounding the issue. karen: another key component of the governor' s and states plan is addiction. asking the fda to tighten the warnings run opiates. i saw a report just this past week on dr. in another state --

overprescribing opiates and many patients are dying because of the prescription overdose. clearly using that. how do you plan to get the reins on that aspect of the crisis? commissioner bharel: we can get ahead of this crisis and we will get ahead of it, but we all have to be educated and armed with the information that we need. that starts at a young age. most individuals who suffer from substance abuse before the age of 17. we have to make sure that in our teachers and the students and parents about the early signs of then we need to educate our prescribers. we are working closely with the prescribers in massachusetts to make sure everyone understands what prescribing is on the tools available. this response will take all of us working together from different parts of society,

teachers, advocates, medical professionals, law enforcement working together for the multipronged response. karen: very important point. school is just beginning and young people are getting back in the sports and we see that a young person may be prescribed painkiller that then leads to a more serious issue down the road . it is important for not only students and teachers and schools to have a handle on this, isn' t it back ? you bring up this important risk playing sports. as a society we need to rethink the way we think about pain in my pain relief is and how -- and what pain relief is in how there are different modules and modalities. karen: there is a prescription explain how that will work.

the prescription for monitoring program in massachusetts has been around for a long time. it looks at all medications that were prescribed in massachusetts the state. the truth about that is that it will then help prescribers understand the history of what the patient has used at the multiple areas in the state. this can be used to prevent some of the issues you spoke about earlier. karen: this is a database. will truck stores have access to rugstores have access to the database, doctors? commissioner bharel: absolutely. in fact, we were one of the first states to mandate that all physicians sign on and use the system. we are working to improve the prescription monitoring system so it can be smoothly integrated into clinical practice. prescription drugs.

t take them all the time. prescription take back day on september 26. commissioner bharel: you bring up a really important point. over opiates in the medicine cabinet, i urge them to get rid of them now. on september 26, the federal as health sites, we will be listing sites in communities where patients can safely return the medications so they are not in cabinet. house, get them out of the don' t flush them to bring it september 26. commissioner monica bharel,

a very serious issue that the state is facing and you and dph thank you. commissioner bharel: thank you for having me. karen: you can continue to get full coverage of the s battle on our website, wcvb.com. thanks for watching, everyone.

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