Banding Together To Beat Back Opioid Epidemic In NC

For individuals in the state of God every day from an opioid overdose is policy not with NC family Pres. John Weston thanks for joining us this week for family policy matters today were to be discussing a national ranking that has placed North Carolina atop an unfortunate list of states battling a widespread epidemic of opioid drug abuse. Our guest today is state representative Dr. Greg Murphy, a physician and surgeon from Greenville, North Carolina, who was serving in his first full term in the North Carolina House representative Murphy serves as chairman of the House health committee and the appropriations committee on Health and Human Services is also a primary sponsor of an important piece of legislation designed to address the opioid crisis in North Carolina. House Bill 243 which is entitled the strength and opioid misuse prevention or stop act to use the acronym representative Murphy welcome to family policy matters.

It's great to have you on the show. Thank you very much for having me here were presented Murphy for the benefit of our listeners as we begin I want to ask you just introduce yourself and tell us briefly how you decided to go into medicine and what led you to become a member of the North Carolina Gen. assembly will thank you.

I actually started thinking about medical school and I was very young. Actually, my father was a physician. He did not practice much but that's actually what started the conversation and academically. That's the field that I pursued. I studied pre-medicine work in college. Also with religion and my first dealings with medicine actually came not in the US but actually outside the US. When I did my first mission trip some 30 years ago, serving in a leprosy hospital in Northern India.

I met Mother Teresa at that point in time and I was really a changing point in my life I was trying to decide whether I wanted to be a long-term medical missionary.

I since have really decided to do medical mission work long-term. Having served in places all over the world. Africa, India, Haiti, Nicaragua, several other countries. That brings me to where I am now. This political arena was never something that was ever on my radar and I believe honestly as I have said in other venues. It was a spot became available and after several months of saying no my wife literally grabbed me and said is this your planner is God's plan. In some ways serving in Raleigh is really doing mission work here. It's taken we away, sadly enough.

It's taken me away from a lot of the medical mission that I've done I still stay in touch primarily with folks in Haiti and Nicaragua, with whom I've worked for many many years, but this is why I am here serving in in Raleigh. I believe it's important that we have a voice for medicine for patients and for those who take care of patients in our state legislature. While that is great and I think our listeners can clearly understand your history and your heart will shift our attention now to the incredible opioid epidemic in North Carolina.

Just as we began to explain.

If you would what we mean when we talk about opioids.

What are these drugs, and opioid is a chemical compound that is generally prescribed or synthesized illicitly to elicit a response that either blocks pain or elicits euphoria in the illicit sense where they are not legal. It's generally a euphoric sense that will take opioids or synthetic opioids, but generally they are a pain medication, something that helps with acute pain or even chronic pain. Now, according to a recent report. Wilmington actually leads the nation with the highest opioid abuse rate in America and Hickory Jacksonville and Fayetteville North Carolina's aren't far behind.

How serious and widespread is the abuse of these drugs in our state. It is a tragic, tragic problem interstates for individuals in the state of North Carolina die every day from an opioid overdose 100 babies is born to an addicted mother and it is a tragic problem that has been growing and now we are seeing actually more people die last more people die in the United States last year from overdoses from opioids and died at the height of the HIV epidemic. North Carolina is one of the center states and taken the bull by the horns and trying to reverse this. Well, that probably a surprise to many of our listeners to understand that this issue is so problematic and so prevalent across the state. How did we get here. What has caused the proliferation of opioid abuse in our state and across the nation. I think that's an excellent question about 12 to 15 years ago. I cannot remove exactly when there was a study out by one of our major journals in the United States that actually criticize physicians for not treating pain well enough in that interim pharmaceutical companies have come up with. Essentially, very, very potent opioids and in some of the instances were now taught in the hospital on the surgeon that the fifth vital sign is pain and that people try to make people comfortable and not be in pain so I think it's altogether starts as a good caused the problem is that we are as physicians and other prescribers.

We have been overprescribing to try to get that pain taken care of. But these new drugs are so highly addictive, so it's a one-two punch word, having too many pills out there and these pills now are highly addictive. Were folks are getting hooked on them 80% of folks who are dive overdoses actually started out on prescribed medications. So it's a tragic problem and what happens is that folks from different walks of life.

Get hold of pain medicines either from her hurt shoulder hurt back, etc., and in some instances, folks are genetically susceptible to addiction and it is through no fault of their own. They don't set out to be an addict did not set out to seek and take illicit drugs but they turned that after they can't get prescribed medications anymore and so it is a major major problem and one that affects all facets of life.

I have known five young men personally that my kids went to school with were in scouts. Some other arena who have actually died from opioid.

These are good people there good families, they're not folks who have any history of abusing medications but they just get sucked in. Stretching is there a typical demographic of individuals who are abusing these drugs or does the addiction problem cut across demographic on it it Johnny cuts across all demographics. It cuts across socioeconomic barriers. This is a problem of our entire society, not just on segment of our society. You're listening to policy matters so I spent to listen to our radio show online and from what resources have a place of persuasion in your community website electing well. As I mentioned at the beginning of the program you have filed a bill House Bill 243 that is aimed at curbing this epidemic.

Presently, the bill has 75 cosponsors in the house and 18 cosponsors in the Senate for the Senate version of the bill talk about if you would the bill and explain what it would do what is it intended to address things on. I think our first they talk about the process and the process.

In my opinion, is how government is supposed to work. It was a bipartisan supported bill. Also, not just legislators involved the Council of State Atty. Gen. and the government involved in this is because we all recognize that this is a horrible problem not only for nation with nationally but really for state what the bill does is essentially it allows for the folks who it it requires.

I'm sorry the folks who actually prescribed medications.

There are now laws to say that this is how many days of worth of medication are allowable for certain disorders for acute pain for postsurgical pain. For example, for patients that I operate on were given a little bit more leeway we have seven days of medication or the other one has five we are strengthening up a system called the CSR assistant controlled substance reporting system to make it the fact that work in a need to prescribe the vast majority of these medications. Using computer online rather than pads because pads are stolen or fraudulently used.

We are also getting our pharmacists and dispensers involved to work with that CSR system so we know where drugs are being prescribed and I can look and see if a patient has been described prescribed this medication by another doctor recently so there's no doctor shopping were also trying to work with the budget to get $20 million over the next two years, not only for what were looking at the folks at prescribe and try to cut back the number of pills. By the way they were 700 million narcotic pills prescribed in the state of North Carolina last 700, but were also trying to look at the folks who have been fortunate instance where they are addicted and try to get substance abuse treatment and community support in this regards were really trying to cover the whole gamut. This is the first of what I believe are going to be six or seven bills try to attack. This will thank you for your leadership on that in addition to encouraging their legislators to support legislation like this.

What can citizens across the state do to help protect their families, their children, their communities from becoming victims of this drug epidemic. I think that's a very good question. Also on their lots, lots of different answers for. If you're injured you know narcotics oftentimes are the right things to do, but sometimes they're not needed and patients have a full right to refuse them just not get the prescription filled, or whatever. Obviously, if there are extra pills left over. That does need to be disposed of or not did not need to be flushed down the toilet were working. We work with sheriff departments and they have filled it places where you can drop off pills were also not will start working some pharmacies and see if we just can't have a takeback program where those are then taken to the incinerator and disposed were also working with our hospice and palliative care community because often times at the end of life. There a lot of pain medications around and that's to try to make people at the end of life comfortable trying to work with them. The hospice folks to help gather our help provide information to families to help best to get rid of these medications. The bottom line is they opioids have their use and in pain management, but the extra pills need to be around and we want to get them out of the equation. Well, I think that such an important point and something that is, our listeners are unsure interested in this issue, but considering how they may play a role in this.

I think it is so important to stress the necessity of of disposing properly of those leftover drugs again.

I have heard and I'm sure you've heard many more stories and about the links that individuals will go to find drugs, those that who are addicted describe a couple of those situations that you are aware of where talk about that inaugural instance of that so often times, just to give a little bit of background. Oftentimes he started out with Percocet pain medications are OxyContin when they no longer can get these. This is where folks turn to heroin and fentanyl and the problem is heroin's most addictive substance on layers and and and didn't know was right there with these folks. Once there, addicted to this is a craving that is exceedingly difficult to turn down, and they will go to any length to try to get this medication about passport, about three months ago I had a young kid that I operated on very nice young man. I believe he was 17 that shared with me after I operated on him and wrote a prescription for pain medication that he received a text from one of his fellow classmates. What did the doctor give you. In other words, it's in the schools. These kids are's trying to find out what other medicines and no go to any length try to get these medications.

It is a problem and we need to take our heads out of the sand because it is killing. As I said for North Carolinians every day, and I'm hopeful that now that we as a public have recognize this issue were to be able to turn the tide back because it is killing our youth is killing our youth. Well, it certainly an issue that is going to require the attention of all the citizens of the state and we are grateful for the leadership role that you have assumed here in the North Carolina Gen. assembly to seek a remedy or a variety of remedies for this is you said there may be several different bills that that come forth that make their way through the Gen. assembly to address different facets of this issue, but is there anything else that you would like to tell our listeners on this on the subject.

I think it's a tragic thing, but I think it's a wonderful thing that all facets of our community and segments of our society are rallying around and it's good to have these things in government because now with government and legislation legislators becoming so partisan. We need things that we can actually agree on to help, lead us in other avenues to help us seek more agreement and other issues. So while this is a tragedy. I also think it's a call for everybody to get together behind certain issues.

Right. Well, we just wanted to encourage our listeners to be very mindful of this.

Keep your eyes and ears open for the progress of this and other legislation dealing with this issue and really seriously consider what we talked about today and take the necessary steps if you or someone in your family someone you love or care about has been prescribed. This kind of pain medication and they may have finish their their use of that but have pills left over that they seek a proper and appropriate way to dispose of contacting the local police department. The local sheriff's department and that's that's the best way we have at the present time to do this. I will emphasize is one of the things Jennifer will these are not bad people there. Not bad people. They are in they have been controlled by an exceedingly addictive substance and they need our thoughts they need our prayers and our support, not a condemnation that we are just about out of town for this week before we go I just want to say thank you so much to representative Greg Murphy for joining us on family policy matters. We greatly appreciate your leadership on this important legislation and are thankful for the great work that you and many others in the state legislature do on behalf of the families and citizens of North Carolina. Thank you so much listening family policy production NZ family to listen to a radio show online, and for more valuable resources and information about issues important to families in North Carolina website family.org on Twitter and Facebook