Shaun Cross: State must fund pilot project to help babies exposed to drugs in utero

By Shaun Cross

I’m the classic eternal optimist. I have always loved Spokane, its people and the region. In whatever leadership roles I’ve been privileged over the years to fill, my rose-colored glasses and happy DNA have made me an unabashed cheerleader for Spokane. I provide you with this background, because I’m concerned about Spokane and our region. I realize that my sunny disposition can no longer wash away what my eyes are seeing and my ears are hearing. I’m referring to the full-blown, five alarm, rapidly deteriorating, fentanyl-charged drug crisis that is threatening our nation and this region.

In some respects, the proverbial genie was let out of the bottle by my generation in the 1960s and ‘70s. By the ‘80s, Nancy Reagan told the next generation to “just say no.” Turns out, that wasn’t very effective. Drug use continued to increase. Then, the opioid crisis hit. Big Pharma flooded our nation with ads promoting innocent-sounding pills for every conceivable condition. Billions of pills were prescribed with little or no oversight or controls in place.

In the late 2010s, we started to hear more about a synthetic opioid called fentanyl. Little did we know that fentanyl was cheap ($1 per pill today in Spokane), incredibly powerful (50-100 times more than heroin) and omnipresent. Then, we had a once-in-a-century pandemic that caused massive isolation, depression and mental health issues.

In 2021, drug overdose deaths in the U.S. hit nearly 107,000, a 30% increase over 2020, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Over 60% of those deaths were attributed to fentanyl. Fentanyl seizures in Washington state increased by 1,000% between 2017 and last year. In Spokane County, fentanyl seizures increased by 2,000%. Last month, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels told me that Spokane is currently seeing one fentanyl overdose death every day. The Drug Enforcement Agency has listed Spokane as one of 11 cities in the United States “in crisis due to fentanyl.” But wait, it gets worse.

Several years ago, I was made aware of the impact the drug crisis is having on infants who are born dependent on drugs.

In 2017, based on 2016 data before the pandemic and fentanyl crisis, the state Legislature found Washington state was experiencing 12,000 births a year where babies were prenatally exposed to opiates, methamphetamines, and other drugs. That equates to about 900 infants every year in Spokane County. Two to three babies per day! Following the pandemic and current fentanyl crisis, our guestimate is that more than 2,000 of our 6,000 births each year in Spokane are infants who are born having been exposed to drugs or alcohol. That’s five to six babies per day. (Editor’s note: Documented neonatal abstinence syndrome cases in Washington state doubled from 4.5 per 1,000 births in 2009 to 9.3 in 2020 according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. The state reports that 1% of all Washington babies suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.)

Last October, a new nonprofit called Maddie’s Place opened its doors in Spokane. It is the fourth pediatric transitional care facility in the country. The other clinics are in West Virginia, Ohio and Arizona, all states experiencing the drug crisis. Since Maddie’s Place opened, it has treated 25 infants suffering from NAS. Of the 25, 24 were born withdrawing from fentanyl. Many suffered in utero polysubstance exposure, withdrawing from as many as four or even five drugs. Maddie’s Place has provided free room and board to 15 of their mothers, virtually all of whom were homeless upon admission to our facility. Maddie’s currently has 42 dedicated, paid staff and 30 trained volunteers. The staff includes a medical director, a clinical director, 16 registered nurses, 18 infant care specialists, a full-time social worker and a peer support employee for the moms.

This past week, Rep. Marcus Riccelli, who is the chair of the state House Health and Wellness Committee, introduced legislation to create a $5.5 million pilot project on Maddie’s Place. These funds would come from the state’s allocation of the national $54 billion opioid settlement. As part of the project, Washington State University Health Sciences will conduct an 18-month study on the prevalence of NAS in our state and in Spokane. WSU will also study our outcomes at Maddie’s Place. Riccelli’s legislation is included in the proposed House Operating Budget that was released March 27. Now, we are hoping the state Senate will follow the House’s lead and include our pilot project and study in the revised Senate Operating Budget that is scheduled to come out on April 23.

What can you do? Call your state senator and tell them it’s critical to pass the Maddie’s Place Pilot Project in the current legislative session. Time is of the essence. This is a battle we are already losing, and we don’t even know the extent of the problem we’re facing.

Shaun Cross is president of Maddie’s Place in Spokane. For more information, visit www.maddiesplace.org or email shaun.cross@maddiesplace.org.