Gov. Scott Walker takes actions on heroin addiction

Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday called for a special legislative session to fight heroin addiction and ordered state agencies to ramp up their response to a drug that kills hundreds in Wisconsin each year. 

The Republican governor held series of events Thursday in Weston, Green Bay and Chippewa Falls to announce the special session and the executive orders, which seek to implement recommendations from a report issued by Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette).

“This is a public health crisis, and that’s why I’m calling a special session of the Legislature and directing state agencies to ramp up the state’s response,” Walker said in his statement.

"It is a crisis in this state," Walker said later Thursday of the opiate epidemic in a speech to the Wisconsin Bankers Association in Madison. "We need to tackle this problem head on."

Addressing the issue will stem a public health problem and help the state's economy, he said.

"If we get this right, we can get those men and women back in the workforce."

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The announcement came ahead of Walker's annual state of the state speech to the Legislature Tuesday. It also comes as the USA TODAY Network-Wisconsin reported that heroin deaths in the state rose for the ninth straight year in 2015, with the 281 lives lost to the drug amounting to three times the 2010 total.

The increase in heroin deaths was the smallest since 2010 and the deaths from opioids  — which include heroin and prescription painkillers — actually dropped for the first time since 2008. But the number of total opioid deaths topped the number of Wisconsin traffic deaths for the third straight year.

Walker on Thursday ordered the state Department of Health Services to apply for up to $7.6 million a year in federal funding through the 21st Century CURES Act to fight the drug.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin pushed to get that anti-addiction money included in the broader federal law and wrote to Walker last month to urge him to make use of it in Wisconsin.

“This epidemic is not a partisan issue, and a strong partnership between the federal government and our state will be essential to an effective response," the Wisconsin Democrat wrote in December. "Applying for the new state grant funding made available last week will be a significant step in advancing local prevention, treatment and recovery efforts.”

The governor also ordered: the state Department of Corrections to better identify and treat drug abusers during their prison sentences and after their release; the Department of Safety and Professional Services to ensure tight, uniform standards and practices on the prescribing of opioid pain medications; the Department of Veterans Affairs to guard against the overprescribing of such drugs in veterans' homes; and the Commissioner of Insurance to survey insurers about their coverage of treatment for addiction to opioids.

Walker also called on the Legislature to hold a special session on several bills to fight addiction by:

• Giving school nurses or other school workers legal immunity when administering the life-saving anti-overdose drug naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan. Nygren said the Wisconsin School Boards Association requested that bill.
• Provide limited immunity for those who overdose on heroin to ensure that their friends don't avoid calling 911 out of fear of later prosecution. But Nygren said he also wanted to ensure that authorities maintain a legal hammer to force reluctant addicts into treatment. So a separate bill would also allow for heroin abusers to be civilly committed in court to make sure they receive help with their addiction. The procedure would be similar to one used with alcoholics.
• Requiring a prescription for cough syrup that contains the opioid codeine. 
• Allowing the University of Wisconsin System to charter an addiction recovery high school that would combine traditional classes with treatment for substance abuse.

"That's one of the barriers to treatment (of teens) because you have to take the kid out of the school," Nygren said.

The governor and lawmakers also are seeking to provide $1 million a year in grants to support addiction treatment centers, $500,000 a year for a consultation service that doctors and others can use to get the advice of addiction specialists, $420,000 a year for four additional state Department of Justice agents to pursue drug trafficking cases, and $100,000 for a program at the state Department of Public Instruction to help schools identify students at risk for or in the midst of addiction and then refer those students for treatment.

Nygren has become a national leader on fighting opioid addiction in recent years, building that profile on painful ground. The lawmaker from northeast Wisconsin has a daughter who has struggled with heroin addiction and in August 2009 Nygren found her on the bathroom floor in the midst of an overdose.

His daughter survived and her father has helped to pass a series of 17 bipartisan laws addressing the problem since 2013. Nygren said Thursday that he believed the state's actions are making a difference but are still not enough.

"There is some progress being made but I say it all the time: It's no time to pat ourselves on the back," he said.

Jason Stein can be contacted at jstein@jrn.com.

Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.