Ohio drug overdose deaths are rising again

Fatal drug overdoses are rising again in Ohio just a year after the state’s first decline in nine years as the opioid crisis tore through the state.

The number of people dying in drug overdoses increased 5% in 2019, preliminary counts show, returning to a trend that looked like it was ready to reverse when fatal overdoses declined 22% in 2018.

County coroners have reported 3,957 accidental drug deaths in 2019, according to preliminary data collected by the Ohio Department of Health. The numbers will be finalized this fall.

That is up from 3,764 deaths in 2018, the first statewide drop since 2009.

Nationwide, nearly 72,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, according to preliminary data released last week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC released its data separately from the state and calculates overdoses slightly differently. It showed Ohio’s increase in drug deaths to be 6.9% and ranked 25th in the nation last year.

Early state and local data for 2020 shows drug deaths continue to climb and those on the front lines say the coronavirus outbreak, and the isolation, problems and disruptions that come with it, are likely to be fueling the problem.

“For people in recovery, a lot of people gain their strength from going to meetings, being with people in recovery, and it’s hard to get that now. People are isolated, quarantined. It’s tough,” said Cheri Walter, chief executive officer of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities.

“People in long-term recovery are relapsing,” she said. “We’re calling it deaths of despair. People just don’t know what to do, where to turn.”

People struggling with addiction often turn to alcohol or drugs because they are unable to deal with stress, Walter said.

Franklin County Coroner Dr. Anahi Ortiz has raised similar concerns.

“It’s really important if you are in recovery to talk to someone everyday,” Ortiz told The Dispatch in April when she reported a 14% spike in the county’s 2019 drug deaths.

Unlike the state as a whole, drug deaths in Franklin County did not fall in 2018. Instead, they increased 10%, and continued to jump in 2019.

Ohio has spent millions to fight drug addiction. The state expanded Medicaid, which has provided treatment services to thousands of people. It also limited and closely monitored prescription opioids, and widely distributed naloxone, which reverses drug overdoses.

Kelli Newman, spokeswoman for Columbus Public Health, said the city has added neighborhood pop-up clinics for naloxone and treatment services during the pandemic.

“We’re going out into the communities to try and reach more people,” she said.

In addition to the spike in overdoses from added stress causing relapses, deadly fentanyl is being mixed into many drugs beyond heroin and often unknown to users.

“People are stressed, they have a lot of anxiety. They think they are using something safe because it’s not heroin but that’s not always the case,” Newman said.

Fentanyl accounted for 81% of Franklin County drug deaths last year, according to the county coroner’s office.

State data shows Franklin County reported 543 drug deaths in 2019, the highest in the state and up from 476, or 14%, in 2018. Increases were also reported last year in Cuyahoga County – 473, up from 443 – and in Lucas County – 221, up from 166.

Two urban areas, Montgomery and Hamilton counties, reported declines in 2019. Montgomery County’s deaths fell to 265, down from 275 in 2018, and Hamilton County had 245 deaths last year, down from 357.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Health did not return a message seeking comment. ccandisky@dispatch.com @ccandisky