MINOCQUA, Wis. (WXPR) — A 20-member Northwoods anti drug effort is starting to pay dividends says a Marshfield Clinic psychologist. The newly named HOPE Consortium, formerly the Northcentral Region Opioid Treatment Consortium, received grant funding last year to continue to battle a growing pill and heroin addiction problem in the Northwoods.
Dr. Michael Larson works at Marshfield Clinic in Minocqua. He says the effort has helped physicians prescribing pain medicines…medicines that sometimes are abused in fewer circumstances. “We’ve made a significant dent. We recently released data where we’ve reduced our opioid prescribing since 2012, we’re down 45 percent. We’re prescribing MUCH LESS than we were in 2012.” As has happened in other parts of the country, pain medicines are more expensive than cheaper on the street heroin, leading many toward that drug to feed their addiction.
More information on the HOPE Consortium is available at 715- 358-7308.
by Ken Krall, WXPR
