Medication can fight addiction epidemic

By U.S. Sen. Angus King
(I-Maine)

The opioid and heroin crisis is a threat to the health and safety of our communities, and it’s shattering lives and tearing families apart. Of all the challenges I’ve seen facing Maine during my time in public office, this may be the most difficult. But if we work together to understand the epidemic, listen to the people fighting it every day, and dedicate resources to proven approaches to treatment, then there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Just recently, we had a rare bipartisan victory in Washington on the issue of tackling addiction. After months of negotiations in Congress, the President signed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) into law on July 22. And though this new law isn’t perfect, it provides a community-based response to the addiction crisis facing America and proves that both sides of the political aisle are ready and willing to take action on this pressing problem.

One of the promising reforms ushered in by the CARA law is a provision I supported that allows licensed nurse practitioners and physicians assistants, who can already prescribe many medications, to prescribe medicine that can help people suffering from addiction turn their lives around. This medicine, buprenorphine (more commonly known as Suboxone), is part of a larger approach know as medication-assisted treatment (MAT) which combines medication with counseling and other support.

Study after study has shown that medication-assisted treatment can reduce drug use and overdose risk for people suffering from addiction. But despite these encouraging results, Maine and much of America isn’t doing enough to make this medication and treatment available to the people who most need it.

The changes we have made through the CARA law will help increase that access by allowing trained nurse practitioners and physicians assistants to participate in MAT. Recently, I held a roundtable in Bangor with Maine nurse practitioners in order to hear directly from them — not only about the challenges they see in fighting the opioid epidemic every day, but about how increased access to MAT can help them do their important jobs. These men and women are on the front lines of the heroin and opioid battle, and this can be another tool for them to treat addiction and save lives.

The roundtable in Bangor was the fifth in a series of discussions that I’ve convened across the state in order to better understand the addiction crisis and help develop solutions. Like the previous sessions in Brewer, Portland, Paris, and Bangor, this most recent one provided critical insights on how we can work together on this issue. We have to continue to arm ourselves with information if we’re going to win this battle.

There is no question that the CARA law is a step forward in our fight against addiction. But despite the solid reforms it makes, it also fails to dedicate the funding necessary to make the law fully effective. To fix that, I’ve been pushing for Congress to pass additional emergency funding sooner rather than later.

This is a serious crisis which is as complex as it is heartbreaking. We can prevail, but it will a take a coordinated and comprehensive approach — and that is what is now coming together.