PROPONENT TESTIMONY: HB4 NALOXONE-OPIOID OVERDOSE

House Health & Aging Committee

Center for Chemical Addictions Treatment

February 25, 2015

Good morning Chairwoman Gonzales, Vice Chairman Huffman, Ranking Member Antonio and members of the House Health and Aging Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee today to testify in support of House Bill 4. My name is Sandra Kuehn and I have the privilege of serving as the President and CEO of the Center for Chemical Addictions Treatment (CCAT) in Cincinnati.

The Center is one of only 22 providers of medical detox certified by OhioMHAS and the only one in Southwest Ohio. CCAT also offers residential treatment for addictions as well as a medication assisted outpatient clinic using buprenorphine.

Over the last decade, we have experienced the meteoric rise in the incidence of opiate and heroin addiction in our communities. At the Center the percentage of patients with an opiate addiction went from 16% of all admissions in FY04 to 73% of all admissions in FY14.

Along with the increase in opiate addicted persons came the increase in persons experiencing an opioid overdose, including fatal overdoses. In Hamilton County the rate of overdoses in 2003 was 0.94 per 100,000 population; in 2011 that rate increased to 8.72 per 100,000. To us these were not just numbers, they were real people.

We felt compelled to take action to stem this loss of life and potential. In April 2013, with the support of a grant from the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati,CCAT began distributing a kit containing 2 doses of Narcan and two nasal adapters to patients who had received the overdose response education. In all, we distributed 540 kits. Through follow-up interviews and requests for replacement Narcan, we are aware of 21 lives saved by our former patients using their Narcan on a friend or loved one. Several of those persons have entered treatment, either at CCAT or another agency.

Today we are still providing Narcan prescription not only to our former patients but to other treatment agencies, sober housing organizations, homeless shelters, and friends and families of addictedpersons.

Last year I testified in support of HB170, which allowed Narcan to be prescribed to a person who knew someone at risk of an opioid overdose. The passage of that bill removed a barrier to getting this lifesaving drug more broadly distributed in the community. The next step in saving even more lives is HB4. We strongly support the availability of Narcan without the need for a prescription. Our experience both at CCAT and in the community setting is that the education on how to respond to an overdose is well received. We support that requirement as well as the rest of HB4.

Thank you for this opportunity to support the passage of HB4. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.