A nationally recognized health official is pleading Ohio lawmakers to put more focus and resources into the opioid epidemic.
Joshua Sharfstein runs the public health practice and training school at Johns Hopkins. He’s telling Ohio’s policymakers that there are three proven strategies in fighting the opioid crisis: effective treatment, recovery services and intervention.
Sharfstein says at this point for Ohio, lawmakers must throw their support behind treatment using medication.
“If you’re looking at the crisis as it is today with so many people at risk of death from overdose. The most important, immediate strategy is to expand access to effective treatment because that’s what pulls people back from the edge.”
That treatment can happen right when an overdose patient arrives at the emergency room, according to Sharfstein. He cites a study that says immediate intervention doubled the success rate.