‘We have no time to waste.’ Mayor Gorton pushes city-wide response to opioid crisis.

Only four percent of the world’s population lives in the United States. Yet, some studies say 80 percent of opioid addicts live here.

And many live in Kentucky and Fayette County.

In 2017, 187 people died of drug overdoses in Fayette County alone. That’s a steep increase from 74 in 2002.

“It touches every demographic,” said Mayor Linda Gorton before a crowd of several hundred people who attended a free screening of “Beautiful Boy” at the Kentucky Theater Wednesday evening. “There are several people who are here tonight who came up to me to tell me who in their family they have lost to overdoses and I am sure there are many more in the audience.”

The free screening of “Beautiful Boy” was sponsored by Baptist Health Lexington. The movie, staring Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet, is about a family struggling with addiction.

Gorton said she will be putting together a multidisciplinary team of leaders from the medical community, researchers, mental health professionals, social service providers, leaders in the faith community and others to develop polices and best practices that will help Lexington implement a comprehensive response to opioid addiction. A law enforcement response is not enough, she said.

“We have no time to waste,” Gorton said. “We have to address this.”

Andrea James, special project manager for the city, is overseeing the city’s opioid addiction and recovery efforts. James said she has spent the past few weeks talking to people in the recovery community, workforce development, hospitals, mental health and other disciplines.

“Many of these people have great ideas,” James said. She’s also gathering data, determining what type of grant money is available and researching what other cities have done to develop a holistic approach to opioid addiction.

James said there is no time table for when the multidisciplinary team will be named or when they will issue their recommendations.

“We are being very intentional with this,” Gorton said in an interview prior to Wednesday’s screening. “We have to get this right.”

“Our goal is to find ways to decrease opioid dependency, increase access to treatment, increase awareness and education and decrease the negative stigma around addiction and save lives,” said Gorton.

Baptist Health has already made dramatic changes in its pain management practices in response to the opioid epidemic, said John Edwards, a nurse anesthesiologist with 18 years of experience.

Edwards told the crowd prior to the movie screening that roughly 72 percent of opioids prescribed are not used by the patient. But too few people dispose of those unused pain pills, Edwards said.

One study showed 54 percent of people started taking prescription opioids after getting them from a family member or friend who had been prescribed them, he said.

To decrease the number of prescribed opioids that are diverted for recreational use, people are leaving Baptist Health with fewer pain pills. For example, a study by researchers at the University of Michigan found patients left hospitals with 22 pain pills for a certain type of surgery but the average patient only took six. Instead of 22 pain pills, that patient is now given 10 pills, Edwards said.

Baptist Health also gives people prescribed opiates a drug disposal bag by Deterra. The patient puts unused opiates in the bag, adds hot water, and the bag destroys the opiates, he said.

The city, Lexington Police and the DEA hold a prescription drug drop off twice a year. Edwards said many hospitals, including Central Baptist, also have depositories to drop off opioids and other prescription drugs “no questions asked.”

Still, Lexington can do more to get unused opioids out of medicine cabinets and out of the hands of would-be addicts, he said.

“We need to make this like Big Blue Madness,” said Edwards of semi-annual prescription drug drop offs. “Then these pills will not be in our schools.”