State report recommends confronting fentanyl with more treatment, recovery support

A new report recommends doubling the funds invested for the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Agency to a total of $24 million this biennium. 

That recommendation is one of 18 in the 2023 annual report of the statewide Substance Use Response Working Group (SURG) that the Attorney General’s office released last week. 

The recommendations come as Nevada and the nation are still struggling to treat the fentanyl crisis. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I have made it clear during my time in office that curbing the opioid epidemic and other crises of substance misuse is one of my highest priorities,” Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement.  

Among the report’s recommendations are expanding medication-assisted treatment and recovery support to people who can’t pay, and providing shipping costs for harm-reduction supplies like fentanyl test strips and naloxone. 

A bill Ford championed during the 2023 legislative session was panned by critics who claimed it amounted to criminalization of substance misuse. 

The bill, which went into effect Oct. 1, 2023,  criminalized the selling or possessing of 28 grams (about two tablespoons) to 42 grams of fentanyl or a drug that contains fentanyl as a category B felony, which is punishable with a minimum term in state prison of one year and a maximum of 10 years. This amount is higher than that at the federal level. Critics said the bill echoes policies of the War Against Drugs, where harsher penalties for drug possession harmed entire communities. 

Ford last week said in a statement the SURG report recommendations emphasizing treatment “if adopted, will significantly impact our state’s ability to fight substance misuse and substance use disorders.” 

SURG was created through Assembly Bill 374 by the Office of the Attorney General in 2021 and is required to make recommendations that improve, establish, expand, and maintain programs designed to combat substance misuse in Nevada. 

It’s made up of three subcommittees which are the Prevention Subcommittee, the Treatment and Recovery Subcommittee, and the Response Subcommittee. These subcommittees recommended 18 ranked areas where the state should focus on addressing substance misuse to SURG. They also submitted two unranked recommendations. 

In addition to doubling the funds for the DHHS Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Agency this biennium and beefing up harm reduction in the state, SURG recommended the state: 

• Expand Medicaid billing to cover preventive services 
• Increase capacity and access to intensive care facilities for children under 18 years of age
• Create priority funding to ensure that Black, Latinx/Hispanic, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ communities have access to treatment, recovery, and culturally competent overdose prevention
• Create a child welfare service model that helps children and families impacted by parental substance use connect to care

There are free fentanyl testing strips and naloxone offered throughout Nevada.