The opioid epidemic in Delaware doesn’t show any signs of slowing, with overdose deaths continuing to rise.
In response, Attorney General Matt Denn announced Wednesday the state Department of Justice is expanding on its 2015 recommendations for how the state can fight the opiate abuse epidemic.
The recommendations focus on expanding treatment options, monitoring opioid prescriptions and increasing law enforcement’s use of the overdose-reversal drug Naloxone.
“Naloxone has been a game changer,” said Major Pat Crowell of the New Castle County Police Department.
His department was the first to use Naloxone and has saved 38 lives using the medication in the past year. There are currently 23 law enforcement agencies using Naloxone, which is up from six last year.
The DOJ also wants the state to create a process to review overdose deaths related to opioids.
“The more information we have, the better decisions we can make,” said Terry Horton, chief of Christiana Care’s Division of Addiction Medicine and chair of Delaware’s Drug Overdose Review Commission.
The Department of Justice will make additional recommendations in the coming months.
That includes working with the insurance commissioner to ensure addiction treatment is covered by private and publicly funded health plans.
It also includes increasing the amount of information physicians have when prescribing opiates.
"There’s no mechanism to inform a doctor who is prescribing opiates that their patient was treated for an overdose in the next county,” said Horton.
He said increasing people’s access to medication-based addiction treatment programs will also help, although the state will need to provide funding. Last year the state’s Joint Finance Committee rejected funding for this type of treatment.
