Drafter
Clerk 05/10/2017
Title
A MOTION requiring that the executive prepare a report and workplan for the implementation of the Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force recommendation to establish community health engagement locations.
Body
WHEREAS, opioid prescribing had increased significantly from the mid-1990s through at least 2010 and has been paralleled by increases in pharmaceutical opioid misuse and opioid use disorder, heroin use, and fatal overdoses, and
WHEREAS, these increases in morbidity and mortality were seen among those who were prescribed opioids and those who were not. Further, when opioid prescribing began decreasing after new limits were placed on legal prescriptions, pharmaceutical opioids became less available and some people with opioid use disorder switched to heroin because of its greater availability and lower cost. Heroin, however, brings with it higher risks for overdose, infectious disease and, because it is illegal, incarceration, and
WHEREAS, in King County, heroin use continues to increase, resulting in a growing number of fatalities. In 2013, heroin overtook prescription opioids as the primary cause of opioid overdose deaths. By 2014, according to medical examiner records, heroin-involved deaths in King County totaled one hundred fifty-six, "their highest number since at least 1997 and a substantial increase since the lowest number recorded, forty-nine, in 2009." Increases in heroin deaths from 2013 to 2014 were seen in all four regions of the county, and
WHEREAS, from 2010 to 2014 the number of people who entered the publicly funded treatment system for heroin use disorders annually in King County grew from 1,439 to 2,886. The increase occurred while the number of people receiving treatment for all other primary drugs of choice declined, except for people with methamphetamine use disorders, and
WHEREAS, recognizing the extent of this public health crisis, in March 2016, King County Executive Dow C...

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