The latest information suggests the efforts by the State of Arizona is making progress against the war on opioids use.

The Arizona Opioid Emergency Response June 2017 to June 2018 report lists several significant factors that describe what Arizona is doing to eliminate the opioid epidemic crisis in the state. Some key indicators in the report are:

• The percent of patients receiving referrals to behavioral health or substance abuse treatment services after an overdose has increased from 45% in June 2017 to 73% in May 2018.

• The number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed by pharmacists has more than tripled in recent months. July – September 2017, fewer than 900 naloxone kits were dispensed each month. In May 2018, 3,498 kits were dispensed to the public.

• The number of opioid prescriptions filled declined 40% between June 2017 and June 2018.

• The number of opioid pills dispensed decreased 43% between June 2017 and June 2018.

• The 4 & 4 report is a list of patients who have obtained controlled medications from 4 different doctors and 4 different pharmacies in a given month. The Arizona Board of Pharmacy sends any prescriber with a patient on the 4 & 4 list an unsolicited letter to alert the prescriber of the patient’s possible doctor and pharmacy shopping. There has been a 62% decline in the number of patients on this report – from 99 in July 2017 to 38 in June 2018.

Further evidence that Arizona is aggressive in dealing with the opioid epidemic can be found in the Arizona Attorney General’s office issuing almost half a million dollars to fight the opioid abuse problem in the state.

These are just a few of the key indicators that let you State officials have plans to continue to address this epidemic for as long as necessary.

For more information visit azhealth.gov/opioid