Admiral Rachel Levine discusses the national opioid epidemic in talk at Kutztown University

Mar. 3—Admiral Rachel Levine didn't mince words as she spoke to the crowd gathered inside Schaeffer Auditorium at Kutztown University on Friday morning about the ongoing national opioid crisis.

"Unfortunately, it remains a serious health risk," said the assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and former Pennsylvania secretary of health.

Levine was the featured speaker at Kutztown's 19th annual social work community forum. She told the crowd that the federal government is taking the fight against the epidemic seriously, and that there are signs of hope.

While the more than 107,000 opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021 was a 15% increase from 2020, she said, early indications are that deaths in 2022 increased at a smaller rate.

"Thankfully, this trend is just starting to slow," she said. "We're still seeing increases, but it's slowing."

Part of the reason for that, Levine said, are the efforts to remove the social stigma that drug addiction often carries.

"This is a chronic, relapsing brain disorder," she said. "It is not a moral failing."

Levine shared with the audience — largely made up of those in the social work field and students studying the topic — the steps being taken at the national level to help combat opioid addiction. They fall under four tent poles: primary prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery.

Levine said there has been an effort at the national level to provide updated guidance on prescribing opioids to patients for pain management, one path that has shown to lead to addiction.

The guidance includes new language on topics like how to decided if an opioid is the right option, how long they should be taken and the risk factors associated with them.

When it comes to harm reduction, Levine said there are three key areas the federal government is promoting: naloxone, fentanyl test strips and safe needle programs.

Levine said the increasing accessibility to naloxone — a medication used to counter opioid overdoses — is a positive step. She said the federal government is working to further improve access to the life-saving drug, aiding states in implementing distribution programs.

And, she added, the government is supporting the development of new, improved naloxone products.

Levine said naloxone should not be looked at as a crutch, but rather as a tool that can save lives.

"When there is life, there's hope," she said. "And everyone's life deserves to be saved."

Fentanyl test strips are a newer tool in the fight against opioid addiction, but one that has become extremely necessary due to the devastating impact of the drug.

Levine said fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, adding that it was present in about two-thirds of opioid overdose deaths last year. Typically, fentanyl is mixed with another drug like heroin or cocaine.

Test strips are used to determine if fentanyl is in something, which can alert drug users to the potential strength and danger of a substance.

Sterile syringe programs are another tool Levine said she supports. They help prevent the spread of diseases such as hepatitis or HIV through communities of drug users.

Currently, such programs are illegal in Pennsylvania, something Levine said she believes needs to be changed.

Levine said naloxone, testing strips and sterile syringe programs all help ensure that those with opioid addictions have a chance to get treatment and enter recovery.

"No one can get treatment if they're dead," she said.

And treatment, Levine said, does work. Particularly when it's done with an effective medication like buprenorphine.

The federal government has made it easier for medical professional to prescribe such drugs, Levine said, and is working to help make them more affordable. There is also an effort to make it easier to bill Medicare and Medicaid for treatment received through mobile units.

Of course, Levine said, treatment isn't the final step in the fight against opioid addiction.

"It's a recovery, not a cure," she said. "We can't push them out the door and say you're fixed."

Levine said that ongoing recovery services — including mental health care— are vital and that the federal government is working to make sure there is equitable access to them. But it will really take a communitywide effort to provide the support that is so desperately needed.

"These are our family members, these are our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers and classmates," Levine said.