One year after Aaron's Law, opioid stigmas still exist

Justin Phillips still hears the excuses.

Most come from parents of children in the throes of opioid addiction, who try to vindicate  their children's dependence on pain pills by making it seem as though they're somehow better off than those addicted to heroin.

"I've had people say to me, 'Well, I lost my son to prescription drugs, not heroin,' " Phillips said. "It feels better for them. They're not like me, because I'm heroin.

"Like I'm still the bad, dirty one, and they're not."

The stigmas surrounding opioid addiction, particularly heroin, are Phillips' focus now.

Her nonprofit, Overdose Lifeline, was instrumental in helping pass Senate Enrolled Act 406-2015 a year ago. Also known as Aaron's Law, it allows Hoosiers to obtain prescriptions for a life-saving drug, Naloxone, if they believe someone they know is at risk of overdosing.

Aaron's Law is named after Phillips' son, Aaron Sims, who played quarterback for Lawrence North High School and was a "red-headed charmer of a son," Phillips told IndyStar in 2014. But after an injury on the field, and with his football career over, Sims began using drugs. He died of a heroin overdose in October 2013.

Sitting behind her desk in a small office space she rents in Lawrence, Phillips prepares free Naloxone kits to distribute to families and caregivers who look after loved ones addicted to opioids.

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Phillips said Overdose Lifeline has prepared nearly 500 kits for families, which have potentially saved nearly 500 people, in less than one year.

"The intramuscular kits are what we give to families for free," Phillips told IndyStar. "Two syringes and two doses. We train them how to do it, and we provide them with treatment referral resources."

Naloxone, more commonly known by its brand name, Narcan, has been lauded as a "miracle drug." When given to people overdosing on heroin or another opioid, such as morphine or oxycodone, Naloxone allows them to breathe again. But before Aaron's Law was signed in April 2015, only emergency workers and first responders were permitted to carry the anti-overdose drug.

Now anyone, including family members, caregivers or addicts themselves, can walk into any CVS or Walgreens pharmacy in Indiana and get the drug over-the-counter.

"We're doing a lot better with pharmacies carrying it, or it being available within 24 hours," Phillips said. "All CVS and Walgreens pharmacies in Indiana have it over-the-counter. They have their own standing order, which means you do not need a prescription, you can just go in."

That standing order will be extended to everyone in Indiana on July 1, when Aaron's Law is amended.

Sen. James Merritt, an Indianapolis Republican who co-authored Aaron's Law, told IndyStar that there has been an "awakening" in the months after the law passed. Stigmas that surround opioid addiction still exist, however.

"It's about humanizing addiction,” Merritt said. "It’s an illness, not a character flaw."

But one of the more contentious arguments that has percolated within the opioid epidemic is the justification some have used to classify heroin addicts to a lower rung of society than those who suffer from prescription opioid addiction, a stigma Phillips is trying to eliminate.

"God bless your broken heart, but we're the same," she said.

This argument, said Dr. Dan O'Donnell, medical director at Indianapolis EMS, has been prevalent for years.

"There has been a longtime stigma that heroin is somehow a 'dirtier' drug than prescriptions," O'Donnell told IndyStar. "While they are all bad, one is certainly not cleaner than others."

Many addicts will begin using heroin once they're unable to obtain pills because of cost or lack of access, O'Donnell said.

"Heroin knows no race, gender or socioeconomic status," O'Donnell said. "I think it is easier to say people are losing their kids to opiates, which is pills and heroin."

For the most part, though, Phillips believes we're on the right track. Aaron's Law, she said, has removed the barrier of access to Naloxone, which was preventing people from saving lives.

The goal now is to keep the line of communication open between loved ones about addiction, and to reinforce the idea that, "I don't want you to use, but if you're going to use, please tell me so I can save you."

Though Indianapolis is not seeing the dramatic rise in overdoses that occurred from 2013-2014, Indianapolis EMS is seeing an increase in Naloxone administration compared to 2015, said Carl Rochelle, Indianapolis EMS spokesman.

In 2015, Indianapolis EMS medics saved more than 1,200 people using Naloxone. This year, they've saved more than half that number already, Rochelle said.

Merritt hopes, within five years, Indiana will have "a quality system where we’ll be able to offer detox, treatment and recovery to opiate addicts."

"I think detox is a major stumbling block to eliminating the epidemic," Merritt said. "We don’t have the facilities for the recovery end of (opioid) addiction. I would much rather pay for a hospital bed rather than a jail cell."

Call IndyStar reporter Michael Anthony Adams at (317) 444-6123. Follow him on Twitter: @michaeladams317.