DRUG OVERDOSES UP 130% IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY

Wright State professor says results of report ‘an alarming concern.’

Eight-five people in Montgomery County died of unintentional drug overdoses in the first quarter of 2016 — a 130 percent increase from 37 the first three months of 2015.

The spike in illicit fentanyl deaths has community leaders calling for an expanded use of nalaxone, a drug which acts to block the effects of the opioid and has literally brought people back to life.

“The overall findings of the report are devastating,” Robert Carlson, Ph.D. at Wright State University, said in a press release about the Poisoning Death Review Report. “We have seen a 26 percent increase in the use of illicit fentanyl in people who have died of drug overdoses. This causes an alarming concern.”

In May, the Dayton Daily News reported that Montgomery County was on a record-breaking pace for overdose fatalities. The county had seen a slight dip from 264

overdoses in 2014 to 259 in 2015 but is currently on pace for 340 this year.

The Poisoning Death Review Report is conducted by the WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine’s Center for Interventions, Treatment and Addictions Research in collaboration with Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.

The report stresses the urgent need to increase distribution of naloxone (or Narcan), especially for family members of opiate users, and to link drug users to treatment.

“There is an urgent need in the community to work collaboratively to address this continued epidemic,” Jeff Cooper, Health Commissioner at Public Health, said in the release. “By utilizing a network of programs and services that are integrated with one another, we hope to see a reduction of deaths through overdose.”

Among other findings from the first quarter of 2016, according to the report:

Of the 85 overdose deaths, 78 were by Montgomery County residents.

Illicit (non-prescription) fentanyl was seen in 67 percent of cases in 2016, up from 41 percent in 2015.

Overdoses including heroin actually decreased from 45 percent in 2015 to 31 in 2016.

Fentanyl was first detected locally at the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab at the end of 2013 and continues to overshadow its less lethal cousin in the Miami Valley, across Ohio and the nation.

The fentanyl scourge became so pronounced in Ohio — with deaths climb- ing 500 percent between 2013 and 2014 — that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dispatched a six-person team to the state last October to study the problem.

The group studied 2014 data for 14 of the state’s “highest-burden” counties for fentanyl-related mortality, including Butler, Clark, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties.

Those wanting information about naloxone through Project DAWN can call Crisis Care at 937-224-4646. The full report is available at Public Health’s website.