Guest column: Oklahoma can turn tides against overdose deaths
Many Oklahomans may not realize that our state is a national leader in preventing and reducing overdose deaths.
In 2017, after years of concerted effort to combat the opioid epidemic, Oklahoma’s drug overdose death rate fell below the national average for the first time since 2002. The state’s progress against opioids has been the result of tremendous collaboration and community mobilization. With the leadership of multiple state agencies, action by the Legislature and governor’s office, partnerships with physicians, and the tenacity of state and local law enforcement, Oklahoma reduced its rate of unintentional prescription opioid overdose death by 68% from 2013 to 2019.
These gains contributed to a 20% reduction in all unintentional overdose deaths between 2016 and 2019. As a result, Oklahoma ranks among the lowest third of states for overdose deaths per capita. We are well-equipped for new challenges and emerging threats in the ongoing response to substance use.
Nationally, the number of overdose deaths in 2021 was the highest one-year total ever. The number of overdose deaths in Oklahoma likewise reached a record high last year. The stressors and challenges of the past several years have accelerated a new wave of drug overdoses in Oklahoma and across the nation.
In Oklahoma, this wave is fueled by methamphetamine.
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Health, methamphetamine was involved in nearly two-thirds of the state’s drug overdose deaths in 2020. The prevalence of methamphetamine use in Oklahoma is nearly twice the national average and increasing at a faster rate than for the country as a whole. Tragically, this has increased Oklahoma’s per-capita rate of overdose death involving methamphetamine by more than 1,000% since 2007.
The production and distribution of methamphetamine have evolved significantly during the past decade. The drug is more widely available and of higher potency and purity. Methamphetamine is closely linked to the opioid epidemic, with the co-use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl of particular concern.
Policymakers and community leaders must respond to this latest challenge with a comprehensive strategy that involves preventive services, medical and community-based treatment, and policy and regulatory interventions.
In Tulsa, a coalition of 14 partners facilitated by Healthy Minds Policy Initiative has come together to coordinate the city’s response to methamphetamine-involved overdose. The Tulsa Methamphetamine Continuum Steering Committee includes the Oklahoma State Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS), City of Tulsa, Tulsa Police Department, OSU Center for Health Sciences, and multiple behavioral health care providers and social service agencies. This group is committed to applying the lessons learned in our state’s fight against opioids to the current surge in methamphetamine-involved overdose and hopes to be a replicable model for other communities.
This effort recognizes that the solutions do not rest with any one organization, industry or sector. For Oklahoma to carry forward its momentum in combatting addiction, it will take ongoing action from leaders across the state. The Legislature and mental health services agency have built a behavioral health care system with more treatment capacity, including by eliminating the long wait list for inpatient beds in recent years. Schools are already implementing prevention programing that can be expanded. Law enforcement and mental health crisis care providers can develop more partnerships that divert people from jail to treatment. Policymakers can fund more treatment practices known to reduce harm and curb methamphetamine use.
Oklahoma has the tools it needs to reduce methamphetamine overdose, beginning with its history of coming together to solve big challenges. Working collaboratively, we can turn the tide against drug overdose deaths once again.
Zack Stoycoff is executive director of Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, a policy think tank working to improve mental health outcomes in Oklahoma.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Guest column: Oklahoma can turn tides against overdose deaths
