State Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, moderated a Capitol panel Thursday designed to address opioid addiction and treatment options, coming after bills addressing heroin abuse were signed into law earlier this year.
The Heroin, Opioid Prevention and Education Agenda included 17 bills that were unanimously passed in both houses of the Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker. Assembly Bill 657, which became law Tuesday, allocates Wisconsin’s Treatment and Diversion program with an additional $2 million in funds. The program focuses on making treatment accessible and a first choice rather than a second option to incarceration.
Nygren hosted a “breakfast briefing” after the bipartisan success of his bills to continue the discussion of the opioid epidemic Wisconsin faces. Nygren was joined by seven speakers, all with a variety of backgrounds including knowledge of the medical sciences of addiction and treatment, experience in intervention services or personal experience of being a recovering addict themselves.
The speakers discussed long-term treatment options, what method of treatment is best, what has been done to combat opioid addiction and what still needs to be done for the future.
“[Addiction] is not a habit, this is a disease,” said Aleksandra Zgierska, an assistant professor at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health. “Prescription opioid abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the nation. Long-term treatment for people with addiction is crucial.”
Opioids include painkillers such as morphine, hydrocodone and oxycodone that go by names of OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin and several other prescription drugs. Heroin is also a type of opioid. In Wisconsin, the number of heroin users is between 4 and 4.5 percent of the population and the usage rate is 12 times the national average.
Cody Fearing-Kabler, a UW-Madison student and co-chair of Live Free collegiate recovery program, described how his body was in “spiritual murder” when he finally realized he needed help after four and a half years of addiction.
One of Fearing-Kabler’s biggest challenges once in recovery was choosing between education and recovery, a difficult choice and one he said most students who require treatment face.
“There were times where I thought ‘I don’t know if I can go back to UW or back to a university at all.’ I would not be back without the strong support I had in recovery,” Fearing said. “The most important resource I needed was collegiate community.”
Fearing-Kabler said he is now a member of Aaron’s House, a destination for young adults that provides up to 24 months of residence with peers who are also in substance abuse recovery.
Fearing-Kabler expressed gratitude for a grant his student organization Live Free received that allows students leaders to become paid staff. Fearing added that the organization needs professionals, and called for a response from legislatures and services on campus.
“When we lose funding as an institution it affects students in recovery and other marginalized groups on campus too,” Fearing-Kabler said. “I’ve been hearing about accountability a lot today...I need things to be accountable to [for recovery], especially an employer and a university program.”
