Ohio’s opioid crisis hits home
By Alex Kamczyc
Dale Kelly, Portage County’s Chief Deputy, has been there before. A parent that’s mourned a child lost in the wave of ongoing opioid related deaths in Ohio. He now takes care of his five-year-old grandchild as his own.
“The biggest thing you’re concerned about is the welfare of the child,” Kelly said. “You handle it because you’re a grandparent and that’s your job. There’s a lot of grandparents raising kids just like me because of that.”
It’s something that a lot of families have gone through in Ohio. The state currently ranks among the top five states with the highest opioid-related deaths. In 2014, there were 2,106 opioid overdoses were reported. Ohio was had the most deaths that year related to opioids, 1,208 of 10,574 nationally. In 2016, there were over 4,000 opioid related deaths, 32.9 deaths per 100,000 people.
In 2017, Portage County alone saw 45 deaths related to opioid deaths. The county is again on track to be in 40’s in 2018, up to 13 deaths already. During the months of January and February, over 10 of the deaths that the county corner handled were related. In 2011, there were only five deaths relating to opioids in Portage.
The most common age for an addict in Portage County being in the 40’s.
“In 1998, we had no drug overdoses at all in this county,” Wayne Enders, administrator of the Portage County Coroner’s office. “Most of what you’re seeing, started in and around in 2011-2012… We see more illicit drug deaths than we do alcohol or prescription.”
Drugs like Fentanyl and Carfentanil, both synthetic drugs, are the most common causes of opioid related deaths in Portage County. In fact, synthetics play a large roll to the opioid crisis in Ohio. According to statistics from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, compiled from information from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that Ohio had the highest number of deaths from synthetic opioids.
Ohio also lead the nation 2014 in heroine deaths at 1,208.
“It’s the one drug that doesn’t discriminate,” said Kelly. “If somebody gets hooked on it, they’re hooked on it and it takes nothing short of a miracle to get them off of it.”
Prescription drugs in Ohio are also a problem. In 2015, there were 85.8 opioid prescriptions per 100 people, 9.96 million prescriptions. In comparison the average U.S. rate was 70 opioid prescriptions per 100 people. In 2017, about 97,000 patients were prescribed more than 50 MED of opioids.
It’s a problem that could be solved soon. On May 3rd, Governor John Kasich proposed a set of new rules that would help prevent patients prescribed opioids from getting addicted to them. The new set of rules would make doctors schedule check-ups, a sort of mile stone system, with the patient to make sure that they are still functioning well when they are prescribed larger doses of painkillers. However, while the rule proposes check ups for those using, it does not set a cut-off limit for the drugs that doctors would prescribe for a patient.
“Just like everywhere else, especially in Ohio. It started with the prescriptions and pain medications being over prescribed,” said Karyn Hall, the director of community relations for the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Portage County. “Physicians being told by the big pharmaceutical companies that OxyContin and so on, were not addictive.”
This isn’t the first set of guidelines that Kasich has proposed. Last year, he introduced a seven-day supply limit to treat short term pain. He has also created the Governor’s Cabinet Opiate Action Team, comprised of several state agencies to combat abuse in their areas of influence. There has also been $1 billion invested in fighting the opioid crisis in Ohio
The Mental Health and Recovery Board of Portage County also offer’s several services for those seeking to rid themselves of addiction. Things like Townhall 2, an organization dedicated to improving mental health, wellness and recovery of individuals through education, intervention and treatment, all help fight addiction in the county.
Because of the steps taken by the state and local governments, total doses of opioids given by doctors in Ohio have decreased from 793 million in 2012 to 568 million last year.
On the streets, police officers are given a drug called Narcan, a drug that is administered to an overdose victim reversing an overdose before it’s too late, saving them.
“Sometimes we’ve used as high as seven doses to bring someone back,” said Kelly. “It’s very helpful, questions about it.”
In 2016, Ohio attorney General announced a price freeze on the drug at $75 for a carton of Narcan, a 40 percent discount from wholesale by the company that makes it, Adapt Pharma, at $125. This makes Ohio the first state to freeze the price on the drug.
While there have been efforts to ensure that no one else would suffer from addiction or a drug overdose in Ohio, the biggest issue remains to be the lack of education on the matter. The most important thing that official’s want people to know is that addiction is not a decision.
“No one decides at some point that they want to be addicted to a drug,” said Enders. “No one is born, unless they have a mother that has addiction, being someone with an addiction. For too long, we have blamed the victim. It’s incumbent upon us as a society to provide resources to help them out of this hell that they’re in.”
Information regarding opioid deaths in the nation:
