LANSING (WKZO AM/FM) — The number of opioid deaths in Michigan have more than doubled in the last five years from 622 in 2011 to 1,689 in 2016, according to statistics just released by Chief Medical Office Eden Wells to the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.
It came as they were considering a package of bills to fight opioid abuse.
The package includes a $700,000 research program that would be conducted in Kalamazoo County to trace genetic indicators that lead to opioid addiction was vetoed by Governor Snyder but has been resurrected by the House Appropriations Committee.
Medicaid recipients would become the test subjects. The goal is to come up with a test that can tell a doctor which patients are likely to become addicted to opioids if they are prescribed, and which patients are not.
State Rep. Brandt Iden is behind the pilot research project.
“I fought hard to retain this important program in the budgeting process and am very pleased Chairwoman Cox and the Appropriations Committee saw its significance in fighting the scourge of opioid addiction and overdoses that has enveloped Michigan and the rest of the nation,” Iden said. “Opioid abuse is one of our state’s biggest health concerns. This program administered by Kalamazoo Community Mental Health will be an important tool for combating the opioid epidemic.”
Also in that package of bills were measures sponsored by Senator Tonya Schuitmaker thatUpgrades and mandates use of a computerized tracking system for opioid prescriptions, that will make it tougher for addicts to “Doctor Shop” going to various doctors and getting many prescriptions for the same malady. It would also make it more difficult for doctors to open “pill mills”, and profit from overprescribing the painkillers.
“I, and many others, find it troubling that the number of controlled substances prescribed in Michigan has nearly quadrupled over the past eight years,” Schuitmaker said. “My goal with these bills is to simply make sure doctors have all relevant information regarding a patient’s prescription history and to put an end to the illegal operations that allow opioids to get into the hands of those who do not truly need them.”
All the bills move to the House floor for consideration.
