It remains to be seen how exactly the first opioid settlement dollars will be divided among programs in Western New York. But the initial payments by big pharma, announced this week by State Attorney General Letitia James, are seen as a critical step towards restoring lives ruined by the highly addictive drugs. WBFO spoke to a Western New Yorker who was just one of many who became caught up in the opioid epidemic.
John is currently enrolled in a residential treatment program operated by Horizon Health Services. His road to addiction began with an injury sustained in a workplace accident.
“I was prescribed Oxycontin, Roxycodone, and big amounts, actually,” he said in a phone interview arranged by Horizon Health. “They actually told me they weren't addictive, it was some kind of miracle medication in which you wouldn’t become physically or mentally addicted to it.”
But they were, and John found himself hooked. And soon, he also found his connection to the medication cut off.
“Once the addiction started hitting the news and the epidemic started coming out, doctors tightened up on the amount of prescriptions they were prescribing,” he continued. “Pretty much, you couldn't get the medication anymore, they just cut you right off. Therefore, you were physically going through withdrawal, mentally going through withdrawal, which is not fun.”
Anti-addiction medications such as Suboxone became available, but John says they were too difficult or expensive to get. But the cheaper and easier alternative to acquire was heroin.
“You couldn't go towards the prescription medication because you couldn't get it prescribed anymore. And the people that had the prescription medication, were selling it for an astronomical amount of money,” he said. “People couldn't afford it. So they went towards the cheaper alternative, which was heroin. And now you see, you know, the epidemic.”
In 2009, 74 confirmed fatal overdoses of heroin were recorded in Erie County. By 2014, the annual total had climbed to 127. The following year, the number soared to 256.
While large pharmaceutical companies would soon be targeted as instigators of the epidemic, John suggests physicians also deserve some of the blame.
“Purdue did false advertise the drug, saying that it was not addictive and less than one person would get addicted to the drug. So I mean, they did kind of fool the doctors. But in the big aspect of things, I mean, the doctors had to have known that people would get physically addicted because it was an opioid,” he said.
In 2019, Attorney General James filed a lawsuit against six pharmaceutical manufacturers that produced opioids, distributors, and the Sackler family, founders of Purdue Pharma. The lawsuit alleged that “Big Pharma” used false and deceptive marketing to distribute their products, and blamed the drug makers and distributors for fueling the opioid addiction epidemic.
The parties reached a $1.5 billion settlement. On April 19, 2022, James announced the first payments from that settlement were being distributed to interests in Western New York.
“These funds will go directly into treatment, prevention and education efforts. And these funds will have an immediate impact,” she said during that announcement. “These funds are a result of our litigation against Big Pharma for the devastation and the destruction that they have caused, not only in New York but all across this nation, the devastation and destruction that has claimed so many lives and impacted so many families.”
As part of the 2022 installment, $12.8 million is coming to Western New York, including $8.3 million to Erie County and $582,000 to the City of Buffalo.
Both public agencies and private treatment centers were eager to receive portions of the payments, but it was not yet known how the money will be divided.
“We're going to evaluate that, working with members of the community, working with the county executive, to determine the organizations that we're going to support,” said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. “There are a number of organizations in the community that are doing tremendous work in providing services to people that are dealing with opioid addiction. We will certainly be looking at those agencies to provide resources.”
Brown also pointed out that the Buffalo Police Department’s new Behavioral Health Team works with individuals and families touched directly by opioid addiction, and could also be a recipient of funds from the settlement.
John expressed his support for clinics and even recovering patients receiving shares of settlement money.
“I do feel that this program especially, Horizon, should receive some of the funding, due to the fact that they kind of operate in a way, they run programming, they help with mental illness, physical fitness, support, housing needs, counseling, so on and so forth,” he said. “But I also do think that funding should go to the individual addict as well for, you know, housing, clothing, transportation needs, you know, so on and so forth.”
John told WBFO he was feeling good and on the road to recovery and thanked Horizon for their help “getting me back on my feet.”
Meanwhile, Erie County did see a decline in fatal opioid overdoses after 2016, but the trend of deadly drug overdoses appears to be ticking upward again, according to County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
“Back in 2014 and 2015, it was an issue with heroin. Now, it's an issue with fentanyl, and fentanyl being used in products like fake prescription drugs, or the spiking of cocaine,” Poloncarz said. “It's been kind of a joke to some people, when I talked last year about ‘be careful with cocaine because it's being spiked with fentanyl,’ but what we're seeing is a lot of individuals, who were not what would be considered traditional opiate users, overdosing, that were using cocaine. And the problem is if they use cocaine, and it's spiked, they then get addicted to the cocaine which has spiked with fentanyl.”
