Portage County fights increase in heroin overdoses

By Taylor Williams and Ray Strickland

An Epidemic and Overcrowding

Portage County has seen a spike in heroin overdoses in recent years, resulting in law enforcement agencies joining forces to combat the epidemic and educate society members.

In 2014, heroin accounted for 18 deaths in Portage County, according to the Coroner’s office. The drug was often combined with other drugs, including various opiates.

Portage County Sheriff David Doak said as the number of overdoses has increased so has the number female inmates.

[pullquote] I never in my career thought that I would see drug overdose deaths surpass traffic fatalities – David Doak, Sheriff[/pullquote]

“We had, on occasion, 73 female inmates,” Doak said. “That kind of paints the picture of what is going on with the heroin epidemic, and it is an epidemic – it’s got a lot of people scratching their head.”

The maximum number of females typically housed in the jail is 34, as certified by the state of Ohio. Law enforcers needed to find a way to fix this problem.

“We put an issue on the ballot to expand the jail and that failed miserably because it was a property tax issue,” Doak said of Issue 18. The issue planned to generate 1.6 million dollars annually for 2 years, ending in 2014.

Because the issue failed with voters, the commissioners plan to impose an increased sales tax, generating the money necessary for the expansion. Taxpayers will see an increase from 7 percent to 7.25 percent.

Creating space for inmates, specifically females, is not the only way Portage County is dealing with this epidemic.

Advocacy groups and educational organizations are playing a large role in combating this issue.

Advocating for Education

Project DAWN, meaning “Deaths Avoided with Naloxone” is an organization that holds complimentary educational classes and shares life-saving kits of naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of an opioid or heroin overdose, with attendees.

Becky Lehman, director of health education and promotion of the health department said Project DAWN is a good resource for family members of addicts because of the educational benefits.

The funding for the program comes in part from general fund money, while the Mental Health & Recovery Board funs the kits – both aspects free to Portage County residents.

Lehman said each kit comes with 2 doses of nasal Naloxone, 2 nasal atomizers, 1 CPR face mask, an educational and instructional DVD and a variety of referral information.

Because most of the people in Project DAWN classes are family members, having access to these kits and understanding how to use them is important, Lehman said.

“To hear that other people are going through the same thing they are, so they’re not alone,” she said. “That’s huge.”

Education is the key to combating the heroin epidemic, not only in Portage County but also in Ohio and the nation.

Doak said the current facility couldn’t function as a rehabilitation center and that is part of the problem when people get released from jail.“They [addicts] get out of jail and go back to the same neighborhood where they start hanging out with the same group of people and they fall right back into it,” he said.

Nicole Walmsley, a recovering heroin addict, can relate to that problem.

“Every line I said I wouldn’t cross, I crossed it,” Walmsley said of her time doing heroin. “It just became a dark hole that sucked me in.”

She said every time she was released from jail, it was always to “the same people, places and things.”

Being reintegrated into society and preparing for a release is a key factor and why Walmsley thinks she has remained sober since March of 2013.

As the sheriff, Doak said, “I never in my career thought that I would see drug overdose deaths surpass traffic fatalities,” but that day has come and he said he thinks it will only get worse before it gets better.

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The heroin epidemic in Portage County is getting worse. Nicole Walmsley, 30, started doing heroin when she was in high school. Walmsley is one of many drug abusers who can turn their life around. TV2’s Ray Strickland has the story of this brave young woman and how education can help curb the growing epidemic.