Successful Opioid Summit Held in Omaha

More than 300 members of the public health, medical, and law enforcement communities in Nebraska gathered Friday at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (www.unmc.edu) for the first Nebraska Opioid Summit (www.unmc.edu/Summit): “Charting the Road to Recovery: Nebraska’s Response to Opioid Abuse.”

The Summit — hosted by the Office of the Nebraska Attorney General, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska Medical Center — focused on prevention, treatment, and law enforcement through direct collaboration with the public health, medical, and law enforcement communities in Nebraska.

Among the topics addressed: Nebraska’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program; a primary care team-based approach to opioid prescribing and pharmacology of opioid addiction; the DEA’s efforts to work in a 360-degree method to break the cycle of drug trafficking, drug violence and drug abuse, and statewide solutions for prescription opioid abuse.

Speakers included physicians from UNMC and DHHS, as well as Brad Schimel, attorney general for the State of Wisconsin; Jeffrey B. Stamm, director, Midwest High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area; John H. Armstrong, M.D., surgeon general and secretary of health, State of Florida, and Scott Collier, diversion program manager, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, St. Louis Division.