Kasich vetoes test of painkiller drug

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The decision by Ohio Gov. John Kasich to veto a $1 million pilot program that would test a treatment for painkiller addicts in trouble with the law hasn’t stopped substance-abuse centers from looking for ways to fund their own use of the drug, which can cost as much as $1,000 a month.

The drug, depot naltrexone, marketed as Vivitrol, is not new, but the application — a monthly shot in the buttocks — is seen as an alternative to older methods of treating heroin and painkiller addictions.

“An alcoholic who hasn’t had a drink for 40 years can lose those 40 years in one hour,” said Paul Coleman, executive director of Maryhaven, the oldest substance-abuse counseling center in central Ohio. “There is always the risk of returning to the behavior that causes the disease. Vivitrol minimizes it.”

Maryhaven, with offices in several Ohio counties, has applied for a federal grant to cover the use of Vivitrol in Franklin County because of the cost.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Vivitrol in October 2010 to treat and prevent relapse after patients addicted to drugs like heroin and painkillers have gone through detox. The drug, which blocks the drugs’ effects, was approved to treat alcohol dependence in 2006.

Coleman calls the treatment another tool in treating addiction among the general population, but promising when it comes to ex-offenders trying to kick the habit. Vivitrol generally works best with people who have been forced off their drug of choice but are at risk of relapse.

The pilot vetoed by Kasich last month would have paid for Vivitrol’s use before and after release by 150 inmates in Franklin and Scioto counties who are either alcoholics or addicted to heroin or painkillers.

Kasich said singling out Vivitrol contradicted his “all strategies forward” approach of tackling the painkiller problem.

Dublin, Ireland-based Alkermes, the drug’s manufacturer, criticized Kasich’s decision, calling it a mistake because of the need to do something to keep drug-addicted offenders from relapsing.

Drug-overdose deaths driven by painkiller addictions are the leading cause of accidental death in Ohio, surpassing car crashes. The same is true in dozens of other states, including Florida, Kentucky and Utah.

“Short sighted” is how Ed Hughes, director of the Counseling Center in Portsmouth, a southern Ohio city hit hard by the painkiller epidemic, described the decision. Hughes’ agency would have been a testing site for the Vivitrol program.

The pilot “would have given us the ability to test this medication with a client population that has a high relapse rate and is costing our state enormous amounts of money for incarceration for nonviolent, drug- related crime,” Hughes said.