Manatee officials: Opioid overdoses down; time for focus on education, prevention

MANATEE -- Overdoses have been decreasing in Manatee County the past few months, and officials say it's time to focus on education and prevention.

Jessica Spencer with Drug Free Manatee gave a presentation on Manatee County's opioid epidemic Tuesday to the Council of Governments, which includes representatives from the county, the Manatee County School District, Bradenton, Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach, Palmetto, Longboat Key and emergency services.

There will likely be more than 150 opioid overdose deaths in Manatee and Sarasota counties for 2015, according to the medical examiner, up from 63 in 2014.

Overdose calls to emergency medical services, however, decreased from 281 in July

to 53 in December.

"In the last three months, we have been below our Narcan use numbers for 2014," Spencer told the group of government officials. "That's a beautiful thing."

The Addiction Crisis Task Force was formed in the summer to come up with solutions for the epidemic. After a few months of meetings and funded by a $230,000 grant, the task force and Drug Free Manatee hope to keep overdose numbers down, in part by including more education to the public, children and doctors.

Spencer said about 99.7 percent of youth in the county are not abusing heroin, and about 98 percent are not abusing prescription medications. And numbers have increased since the state gutted funding for a drug education program years ago.

"The vast majority of children in this county are doing the right thing," said Bob Gause, a Manatee County School Board member. "But just 2 percent is close to 2,000 students. That's still a huge problem."

Spencer agreed, saying the school district could do more in educating students about the dangers of drugs. Diana Greene, school district superintendent, said several programs are being tried to increase prevention without additional state funding, including a pilot program for middle school students through Centerstone addiction treatment facility. If there are more options, Greene wants to hear them.

"If there's a problem, we want to be part of the solution," Greene said.

Drug Free Manatee has also worked to educate the public through several public service announcements, the most recent on the Good Samaritan law, which protects anyone calling 911 for a medical emergency such as an overdose from being charged for illegal items found on scene.

"Many of you know that people will push people out the car door or leave them out in the street because they don't want to deal with law enforcement," Spencer said.

Other announcements by the group include the Your Life Matters cards, which were updated recently to include information about the effects of a dose of overdose recovery medication Narcan, so addicts understand side effects when they come back from an overdose; the Monitor, Secure and Dispose cards, which Spencer said she is trying to convince pharmacies to staple onto prescription pill bags to encourage people to dispose of medication properly; and the Deterra pilot program, which involves 10,000 bags donated to Manatee County to allow people to neutralize drugs at home and throw them away safely.

"You can put up to 90 pills, liquids, patches, in warm water and it deactivates, and then you can throw it away," Spencer said. "It's completely biodegradable and has no negative effects to wildlife or humans."

The Addiction Crisis Task Force is also making efforts to educate physicians, most of whom go through no addiction training in medical school. The task force is putting together a class at Manatee Memorial Hospital, for which doctors would receive continuing medical education credit, to talk about the importance of evaluating patients for addiction behaviors and encouraging them to use the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.

"The use of the PDMP is the No. 1 deterrent to the pill mills and doctor shopping, but it's not mandatory for physicians to use," Spencer said.

Abuse of prescription medications led to at least some of the opioid and heroin epidemic in Manatee County, so Spencer emphasized it's important to keep people from getting addicted to prescription medications. Simply educating physicians on addiction is a solution, Spencer said.

Spencer emphasized good news on decreasing overdose numbers is not a reason to think the crisis is over.

"We're making strides in Manatee County, but we can't take our foot off the gas pedal," she said. "We can't."

Kate Irby, Herald online/political reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7055. You can follow her on Twitter @KateIrby

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 6:54 AM with the headline "Manatee officials: Opioid overdoses down; time for focus on education, prevention ."