Howard Fass is the treasurer of the Rotary Club of Farragut. He recently doubled as our speaker and his message was both informational and sobering. He covered a wide swath of issues surrounding the drug business. He talked about the high cost of drugs, the abuse of drugs (opioids), and he broke down who is abusing drugs.

Howard Fass

Fass, 63, is a retired pharmacist, earning his doctorate in pharmacy from Mercer University in Atlanta. After 30 years in the business, in retirement, he works between three and five days a month at the Helen Ross McNabb Center as a pharmacist.

First, he discussed the high cost of prescription drugs, and it’s a bit staggering. What is the impact of those costs, he asked us rhetorically … and then told us.  To wit:

  • Approximately 25 percent of Americans taking prescription drugs say it is difficult to afford their medications.
  • 30 percent of those aged 50 to 64 years report problems affording drugs.
  • 29 percent of all adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed at some point in the past year due to the cost.

“It cost the drug companies a lot of money to develop these drugs for us and that accounts for a lot of the high costs,” he said. “Only one in 10 drugs submitted to the FDA gets approved, too.”

Yet, Big Pharma remains a target of the average American as we all know.

He also broke down the dreary and sad scene when it comes to drug abuse and who is doing the abusing:

  • 5 million Americans aged 12 or over were current (as of October 2019) illicit drug users.
  • 1 in 9 individuals aged 12 or older abuse drugs.
  • 2 million adolescents aged 12 to 17, or 7.9 percent, abuse drugs.
  • 3 million, 1 in 4 young adults aged 18 to 25, or 24.2 percent are abusers.
  • 2 million adults aged 26 or older are abusers, or 9.5 percent.

The problem is real.

About opioids, Fass said:

  • Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. Not car wrecks. Not by being shot. And 10 million are 25 and under.
  • 60 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2015 involved opioids.
  • Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were five times higher in 2016 than in 1999.
  • 116 people died every day from an opioid-related drug overdose in 2016. That number continues to rise nationally.
  • In 2016, the opioid epidemic was estimated to have cost the U.S. a shocking $504 billion.

Last year the club heard about this issue from Knox County Attorney General Charme Allen. In response to the devastating spike of overdose deaths in Knox County, she helped create the Drug Related Death Task Force that is proactively analyzing suspected overdose deaths. Law enforcement is analyzing data in real-time to pinpoint significant trends, hotspot locations and supply sources in order to stem the opioid epidemic.

In 2019, Knox County had 242 overdose deaths. That’s 50 less than the 294 in 2018. There were 293 in 2017. Maybe the focus by AG Allen and others is working. Knox County has had 27 overdose deaths this year.

“We’re doing a better job of keeping them from actually dying from the overdoses,” the Attorney General says. “But we still have staggering numbers of people using, people addicted and people overdosing.”

Drug abuse and overdoses remain a major issue in our community and nationally.  Farragut Rotary is planning to bring Fass back for a return engagement to learn more.

If you’re interested in exploring membership in Farragut Rotary, drop me an email at tking535@gmail.com The club meets at 12:15 p.m. each Wednesday at Fox Den Country Club. You also can call me at 865-659-3562.