CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) say officials with the U.S. Federal Drug Administration need to look at the over supply of prescription drugs, like Oxycodone, to curb West Virginia’s opioid abuse problem.
“When you have a product that was supposed to be helpful and reduce pain and when they advertise it and said it was non-addictive, we know that not to be true, and they’re putting more and more of this stuff on the market, something is wrong,” Manchin told reporters before a round table discussion Tuesday afternoon in Charleston with state health officials and FDA Commissioner Robert Califf.
Tomblin said part of the problem is opioids are being prescribed to people who don’t necessarily need them.
“If there’s too many going into an area, look and see if there’s really a need for that — for people’s real health problems or are they being abused?” the governor said as a suggestion to the FDA.
The “silent killer” drug, Manchin said, is destroying people’s lives and the state’s economy.
“It takes people out of the work force and West Virginia is living proof when you have less than 50 percent of the working adults that should be working that are not working there’s many reasons for that and I’ll guarantee you drug addiction is probably the most prominent one,” he said.
There is enough treatment in West Virginia, state DHHR officials said, but the capacity to treat those in need isn’t there. The state has a lack of treatment and recovery centers, but Tomblin said they’re working toward expanding those services, particularly since President Barack Obama’s visit to the Capitol City in Oct. 2015.
“It seems like it’s slow moving and it is,” Tomblin said. “We have a big problem and we’re addressing it. Hopefully, I look forward to the day that we see West Virginia drug free.”
Much of what was discussed at Tuesday’s meeting was the importance of treating opioid abuse as an illness and not a crime. Tomblin, referring to the Justice Reinvestment Act, said he’d rather spend federal money on treatment centers than building more prisons.
“We can’t lock up everybody. We’ve got to be smarter with the dollars that we have to make sure that we’re doing what like we did with Justice Reinvestment and get those folks who violated the law, to get them back in the communities and make them productive citizens,” the governor said.
But the other problem is a lack of funding to help get those treatment facilities up and running in the Mountain State, Manchin said.
He proposed a bill earlier this year which would tax opioids one cent per milligram to be used to fund substance abuse treatment. The Budgeting for Opioid Addiction Treatment (LifeBOAT) Act would establish a permanent funding stream of up to $2 million to provide and expand access to treatment centers.
“I’m having a hard time getting any Republicans to sign on and I don’t know why they look at it as a tax,” Manchin told the media. He later told Califf he hasn’t heard any opposition to the bill since he introduced it back in May.
Califf told round table participants including state Health Officer Dr. Rahul Gupta, state DHHR Secretary Karen Bowling and others that FDA leaders plan to meet in the next month to talk about making the drug naloxone more available through over the counter purchases.