The D.C. Opioid Abatement Advisory Commission officially held its inaugural meeting to address strategies and resolutions to alleviate the opioid crisis across the city. Despite dedicating hours during the meeting to talk about funding, strategies and more, and then a subsequent Council hearing, the opioid epidemic is still undeclared as a public health emergency.
During the Oct. 25 meeting, members deliberated top priorities in the Department of Behavioral Health’s (DBH) Training Institute Room, as their first steps were heavily focused on clarifying budgetary practices while evaluating the success and failures of previous budget allocations to ensure successful solutions moving forward.
Currently, the commission has an estimated $13.9 million to jumpstart immediate efforts in rectifying the opioid crisis.
There are various sources of upcoming funding toward services and support for individuals with opioid use disorders (OUD) over fiscal year (FY) 2024. The State Opioid Response (SOR) Grant of $24.9 million is to increase access to medications for OUD. The SAMHSA Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant (SUBG) of $1.9 million is to implement activities that will prevent and treat substance use while targeting populations and service areas. Medicaid will provide $18.6 million over FY 2023 in fee-for-service funding, in conjunction with SUD treatment and recovery services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Overdose Data to Action Program (OD2A) of $3.9 million is awarded to DC Health to support surveillance and collecting data on nonfatal and fatal overdoses.
Dr. Ayanna Bennett, acting director of the Department of Health, echoed the sentiments of various committee members to consciously evaluate the upcoming budget before it is put in place as a means to properly allocate opioid settlement funding this go round.
“When we’re talking about spending funds, some of it has to go to things that we are already doing, because we’re already doing a lot. To invest in something, we have to have some sense of what’s worth the money and what’s not, and we have the benefit of having done some of that,” Bennett said. “So it doesn’t make sense to me why we wouldn’t use that benefit to help correct where the funds [will] go.”
Examining Current Data, Strategies to Address OUD
Director of the Department of Behavioral Health Dr. Barbara Bazron, highlighted the need to reassess previous data and popular sentiments that consider the issue most prevalent in Wards 7 and 8, as she said she questions if the information is completely accurate. Bazron suggested working to examine where the most concentrated areas of the opioid epidemic exist to help guide the direction of funding and strategic planning for those residents in need.
However, several commission members including Demetrius Jones, community mobilizer for the District of Columbia Prevention Center, disavowed the previous strategies and choices of grant allocation to address opioid issues. He illustrated the grim reality of opioid-addicted residents that persists across the District, alluding that measures taken thus far have proven ineffective.
“We have all the best people in America sitting right at this table with years of experience of fighting opioid addiction and substance abuse disorder, and [yet] everybody can raise their hand for failing. For failing me, failing the Washingtonians, and failing your community. Why? Because the evidence is the people who are dying outside. The evidence is based around you not being able to do what you are getting paid to do, but then have me out there doing it for free,” Jones expressed.
Having saved numerous residents amid opioid overdoses with the saving grace of narcan on hand, Jones continued to share, “I see real results because people are coughing up fentanyl out of their nose and stomach on the spot. The evidence is on the news. The evidence is the people lying in the alleys on top of each other to stay warm. The evidence is the people that are dying who are unhoused in the District. The system that we are in needs to address the real issue that we know exists in the District of Columbia.”
Declaration of a Public Health Emergency Left in Gridlock
Occuring on the heels of the inaugural Opioid Commission meeting, At-Large D.C. Council member Christina Henderson led the Council hearing PR25-0386 on “The Sense of The Council On The Opioid And Fentanyl Epidemic Resolution of 2023.” This hearing was to assess public witness testimonies and direct examination of District leaders to determine whether the opioid and fentanyl epidemic will be declared a public health emergency within the District of Columbia.
The District’s medical examiner’s latest overdose report through July 2023 leads commission members to believe that at the current rate, the city is expecting to have over 500 opioid deaths through the remainder of this year. The jarring numbers have encouraged local organizations and drug recovery advocates alike to lay pressure on Mayor Muriel Bowser and her administration to address the opioid crisis with greater urgency.
Henderson questioned the efficacy and framework of Bowser’s Live.Long.DC program, detailing that the campaign website lacked updating for months until roughly three weeks ago.
“We keep talking about Live.Long.DC as our framework, and yet, I don’t see us actively going to the framework to determine whether or not it’s working,” Henderson said.
After a four-hour council hearing, the opioid epidemic remains a static concern with no verbal acknowledgement as a public health emergency by DBH or DC Health officials.
“I’m concerned that we have a great opportunity to advance real solutions in the District, and that should be coordinated with all of the other work through District government, [and] it should be connected to the legislation that’s being rolled out by the executive,” Ward 5 Council member Zachary Parker told Dr. Bazron during cross-examination. “But it is a little frustrating that this is now the fourth or fifth hearing that we’ve had on opioids, and we can’t even just clearly say that we have a crisis.”
Thanks for your excellent writings.