Coroner’s summit will focus on education

Anahi Ortiz was unsure whatw last year’s Opiate Crisis Summit would accomplish.

Now, the Franklin County coroner says a second summit is needed Wednesday to address the heroin and opiate epidemic that officials say continues to ravage central Ohio and large parts of the country.

“We do see the need for further awareness,” Ortiz said.

The theme for the 2016 summit was prevention. This year, the theme is education, with an acknowledgment that the battle to thwart the crisis has just begun.

“Everyone is hungry for information,” Ortiz said. “Everyone is seeing the toll it is taking in our communities.”

It has had a devastating impact in Ohio and Franklin County.

Ohio had 3,050 opiate overdose deaths in 2015. It’s expected to easily surpass that total in 2016.

The Franklin County coroner’s office had numbers only through three-quarters of 2016. They show there were 191 opiate-related overdose deaths through September, on pace for 254 for a full year. That tops the 246 opiate overdose deaths in 2015 and is far above 2012’s 155 opiate deaths.

Cuyahoga County reported its heroin overdose deaths went from 184 in 2015 to 299 last year. Its fentanyl-related overdose deaths went from 92 to 394 in that same time.

The Ohio Health Department reports that from 2007 through 2016 there were astounding increases statewide in overdose deaths from:

Opiates, from 631 to 2,957, a 369 percent increase;

Heroin, from 146 to 1,246, a 753 percent increase;

Fentanyl, from 4 to 1,769, a 44,225 percent increase.

Experts suggest those numbers would be higher without the use of naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of opiates and can revive someone from an opiate overdose.

While heroin was the major story last year, fentanyl and carfentanyl could be hot topics this year because of the high number of overdose deaths associated with those opioids.

Opiates are “natural” painrelieving drugs derived from the poppy plant. Opioids are man-made drugs that create the effect of opiates. The terms often are used interchangeably.

“It hasn’t slowed down, unfortunately. We’re seeing a lot more fentanyl in deaths,” Ortiz said.

Opioid deaths have exploded because man-made drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanil, which are far more potent than heroin, are cheaper and dealers mix them into heroin to boost profits. Often, users aren’t aware their heroin contains the more potent drugs and overdose.

In November, a national report noted Ohio led the nation in 2016 for its number of overdose deaths.

“It saddens me that we can’t do something quicker to prevent the deaths,” Ortiz said. “It’s going to take a longer, more complicated way to solve the issue.”

Last week, Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady and Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther held a meeting seeking “greater collaboration” from area agencies to address the epidemic. Ortiz, as evidenced by the formation of the task force and summits, has so far led the move to address the problem.

But O’Grady appointed David Royer, head of the county Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health board that funds agencies which provide treatment beds and programs, to lead a community action plan. O’Grady and Ginther said they want to unite the anti-opiate programs and funding for county agencies.

“We’ve got to come up with a communitywide answer to this,” O’Grady said. “Nothing’s bigger than this thing and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

Ortiz’s efforts against opiate addiction, including the Drug Overdose Death Initiative to review heroin deaths and provide officials with information about the epidemic, now fall under the umbrella of the new collaborative.

The keynote speaker at this year’s summit is Mark O’Brien, the director of Opioid Prevention and Treatment for the Baltimore City Health Department.

The goal, Ortiz said, is to highlight the importance of communication about addiction and attempts to beat it. O’Brien helped Baltimore distribute naloxone and lifesaving training to family and friends of addicts. That and other programs to educate the public about opiate addictions and overdoses are on the summit’s agenda.

“People need to be aware,” Ortiz said. “I think they can’t hide and say it doesn’t exist ... in their neighborhood.”

The summit is 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday at Ohio State University’s Fawcett Center, 2400 Olentangy River Road. Free tickets for the 500 seats were gone in 10 days.