With anticipated funding of about $70 million over 18 years, Bucks County Commissioners unanimously voted Wdenesday to send $16,000 of its Opioid Settlement Fund money to increase and extend the Rapid TOX Program at the Bucks County Coroner’s office to more quickly determine if a death was caused by drug overdose.
Rapid TOX is a one-step drug screening test to detect illegal drugs in a person’s system within minutes after testing.
“When someone dies of a drug overdose, they do a drug screen and test results. This speeds up answers, so you find out the cause of death because weeks of waiting are painful for the family,” said Diane Ellis-Marseglia, Bucks County Board of Commissioners vice chair.
Using a urine sample, the rapid or “point of test” kits screen for “some combination of the following: Amphetamine, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, marijuana, methadone, methamphetamine, opiates, oxycodone, PCP and propoxyphene,” according to Connecticut-based Foley Services website.
READ: How States Are Spending Opioid Settlement Cash
Instant or rapid tests provide results in real time at the point of collection – typically within minutes, according to the website.
Lab-based drug tests take longer to receive results and can use other materials to test for the presence of illegal drugs, such as hair samples or urine or oral fluids, the website said.
Money received by counties for drug and alcohol prevention and treatment comes from the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust, established in July 2022 to receive settlement money from opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy chains, the PA Opioid Trust website said.
Pennsylvania’s Opioid Trust settlement funds go to counties across the commonwealth to reduce the impact of substance abuse disorder among residents and populations.
Commissioners also unanimously voted to approve $2.2 million to provide funding to administer preventative treatments to those at the Bucks County Department of Corrections through the Medication Assisted Treatment Program.
Ellis-Marseglia said in a phone interview the county uses Vivitrol and Subutex, both administered once a month by injection, to treat those with substance use disorders.
“So even if you took a drug it [the monthly injections] will prevent you from getting high,” she explained.
Vivitrol and Subutex are used as preventative treatment to help those with substance use disorder avoid relapsing back to illegal drug use.
“Sometimes people come in [to the prison system] on substances, and we have to treat them,” Ellis-Marseglia added.
