UW Professor: Opioid Epidemic In Wisconsin Hasn’t Peaked

Health Expert Predicts More Overdose Deaths To Come

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A former worker at the Department of Health Services predicts Wisconsin’s opioid epidemic will get worse before it gets better.

Speaking at a forum Thursday put on by the Evidence-Based Health Policy Project, Hank Weiss tried to illustrate what he called “the immense societal toll” of drug abuse in Wisconsin by comparing deaths from prescription painkillers and heroin to those during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Drug deaths, he said, have far surpassed those from HIV.

“We are nowhere near the peak of the opioid epidemic. This comparision is why I believe Wisconsin remains in the midst of a major public health crisis,” he said.

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Weiss is an epidemiologist and now works as adjunct associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Wisconsin, he said, has responded more slowly than other states to the drug crisis.

He also acknowledged that some progress has been made, pointing to Rep. John Nygren’s push to target abuse.

It’s a common, but inaccurate perception, that most overdose deaths involve people under age 25. In fact, fewer than 9 percent of opioid deaths are people of that age, said Weiss. For heroin, it’s fewer than 18 percent.

Weiss did note that despite the lower rates, “abuse among youths can lead to long-term use, harm and years of elevated risk of mortality.”

The most recent figures from 2014 shows there were 843 drug overdose deaths in Wisconsin from prescription painkillers and heroin.