Regional ‘drug czar’ candidates are sought
Congressman, sheriffff want someone to coordinate local fifight.
Montgomery County’s sheriffff and a Dayton congressman want local business leaders to suggest candidates to become a “Dayton region drug czar.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, and Montgomery County SheriffffPhil Plummer saidthedrug czar position is needed to coordinate the region’s fifight against an opioid epidemic.
“Clearly, what we’ve done has not beenenough. Ourcommunity has been, up until now, working as many individual efffffffffffforts without effective communication. The Dayton region needs a drug czar to help uswork together and execute a well-organized, coordinated, andplanned attack against this epidemic,” Turner said.
Health offifficials inMontgomery Countysayheadwayisbeingmade already using a united, community-wide approachwith the expertise of dozens of organizations.
The effort, the Community Overdose Action Team, or COAT, launched last November. The primary backbone support of COAT
includes representatives from Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County, Montgomery County Alcohol, DrugAddiction& Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) board, the Dayton Police Department, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, and others with the courts and in emergency services and health care.
“We have a unified strategy, we have a coordinated approach and there are currently over 100 organizations throughoutMontgomery County that are actively involved in this process,” Montgomery CountyHealth Commissioner Jeff Cooper said at amonthlyCOATmeeting this week. “It is collective in its nature. It is collaborative. We are unified. And we aremoving forward in a coordinated fashion.”
Turner and Plummer wrote this week to Phil Parker, president and CEO of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, and Jeff Hoagland, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, for suggested drug czar candidates.
Their letter said that the goal is to identify someone who can “provide the organizational skills and expertise to transform our community response into a collaborative, region-wide, network of addiction services.”
Turner’s 10th Congressional District includes Greene Countyandthe northern half of Fayette County, including Washington Court House, but about 3 in 4 constituents live inMontgomery County, where the opioid crisis has taken a greater toll.
“Our system of care for those with addiction and mental health disorders is inconsistent and lacks a continuum of care that is consistentwell-coordinated planned approach to this epidemic,” Plummer said.
The number of overdose deaths in Montgomery County dipped recently to 40 a month in July and again August and to 35 in September after a high of 81 inMay.
As of Thursday, theMontgomery County Coroner’s Office reported 507 deaths this year. If the current pattern continues, overdose deaths would reach about 620 for the year — far surpassing last year’s total of 349 — but fewer than feared when deaths peaked during the early months of the year.
The pattern of decreasing overdosedeathsinMontgomeryCountymaybeattributed to an “all-of-the-above” strategy by COAT, Cooper said.
The team is addressing all aspects of the epidemic, including prevention, removing illegal drugs from the street, enhancing naloxone distribution and needle exchanges while adding treatment and recovery housing capacity and building morecommunity awareness, he said.
“Wewill continue tomove forward under this united structure to make sure that we continue to have those deaths decrease because that means fewer people are losing loved ones,” Cooper said.
When announcing the drug czar position last month, Turner said the position would be unpaid.