Bomgar on opioids: “We have a death problem, not a prescription problem.”
Users would switch to either “street drugs or injection drug use and they are going to start dying.” Mr. Bomgar said that opioid deaths have risen while opioid prescriptions have fallen since 2010. When the number of prescriptions “stayed flat, opioid deaths stayed flat.” His presentation to the board (posted below) stated:
After 2010, there is a near perfect but opposite correlation (-0.99) between the DECREASE in opioid prescriptions and the INCREASEin overall opioid deaths. The correlation is so incredibly close it is eerie. Prescriptions go down, deaths go up. Almost in exact mathematically-mirrored lockstep. With a negative correlation that is that close, you could predict the death rate in future years just by knowing the rate of prescriptions for a given year and forecasting the opposite of that in deaths….
“Supply controls” are killing 4 times as many lives as they are saving. In the absence of universally available Medication Assisted Treatment {MAT) -which all states severely lack, rather than saving lives, our policies are now killing three additional people per 100,000. It is true that one (1) fewer is overdosing on prescription drugs but now four {4) more are overdosing from Heroin or Heroin+ Fentanyl. And in fact, the person who we think we are saving is probably just overdosing on street drugs, so we are not even saving that person….
Jackson Jambalaya
12/26/17
