Ahlquist targets opioid crisis

COEUR d’ALENE — Candidate Ahlquist reverted to Dr. Ahlquist during an editorial board meeting Thursday at The Press.

Tommy Ahlquist, as he’s known on the campaign trail in his quest to become Idaho’s next governor, has targeted Idaho’s opioid crisis as one of the central issues demanding statewide attention. His view is shaped largely by his experience as an emergency room doctor for 18 years.

“I worked almost all night shifts and weekend shifts,” said Ahlquist, who’s in a May 15 Republican primary battle against Lt. Brad Little and U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador. “That’s when things happen; that’s when it goes down. You take care of people who are broken. For many years it was meth — meth, meth, meth. But if it’s methamphetamines, you rarely die from it.

“Opioids are different.”

Ahlquist said about 200 Idahoans die from opioid abuse annually.

From a medical perspective, Ahlquist elaborated on the history of opioids and steps taken to keep abuse under control. But that’s not nearly comprehensive enough, he said Thursday.

“Now you’ve got a lot of people who are addicted to pain medicine, which is a very common thing for a lot of people just because they had a back injury... The difference with opioids unlike any other medicine is... you have so many people who can’t get off it.”

And the state, the candidate and the physician Ahlquist believes, needs to do more to help.

“We’re wasting money on waiting until they get sick, waiting ‘til they’re in the ICU or, worse yet, ‘til they die,” he said. “With awareness, education and treatment, this is something we can take care of.”

Here’s Ahlquist’s plan to reduce the number of opioid deaths in Idaho by 50 percent in four years:

- Join six other states in declaring a state of emergency on Opioid Overdose and Deaths — addressing the more than 200 overdoses and/or deaths per year caused by this crisis: http://bit.ly/2aowy2C

- By declaring a state of emergency, he said, some federal funding would come into play.

- Use the power of the governor’s office to raise public awareness about the opioid crisis and educate families and individuals on how they can get help and help others.

- Under the leadership of the governor’s office, assemble a broad group of leaders to help fight this crisis including state and local law enforcement, first responders, medical professionals, pharmacies, primary and secondary education leaders, community leaders and churches.

- Ensure law enforcement agencies and first responders have the training and equipment necessary to fight this crisis.

- Evaluate and consider smart investments in substance abuse clinics that can help address this crisis.

- Improve data collection, training, life-saving naloxone (opioid reversal drug) dissemination, and access to medical assisted treatment programs, and non-opioid chronic pain therapies in Idaho.

- Undertake a full review of all state mental health programs including suicide prevention programs — from top to bottom — and make any improvements necessary that could help with this crisis and the overall health of Idahoans.