SIGN OF LIFE
THE CITY’S smallest borough took some big steps last year in its ongoing war against opioids.
The number of fatal Staten Island drug overdoses plunged a steep 26% in 2017, with the toll falling from 116 deaths in 2016 to just 86 last year, authorities said Thursday.
“Each of those 86 lives lost should serve as a continued reminder of the five-alarm fire we face in dealing with this drug epidemic,” said borough District Attorney Michael McMahon.
“This battle is far from over . . . Every death is a tragedy, and we will not stop fighting until the total number is reduced to zero.”
Another 286 potential Staten Island fatalities were avoided by resuscitating overdose victims with the opioid antidote naloxone. The life-savers included EMTs, police officers and family members.
In 2016, statistics showed the NYPD resuscitated 80 people on Staten Island.
The decrease in deaths came after a year where the Heroin Overdose Prevention and Education (HOPE) program debuted in the borough, directing low-level drug-offenders to health and treatment facilities rather than jail.
According to authorities, 94% of the 284 people who entered the program participated to a degree sufficient to have their prosecutions withdrawn.
It was also the first full year of the borough’s Overdose Response Initiative, created by McMahon in March 2016 to investigate all overdoses in hopes of identifying and arresting drug dealers.
And public awareness campaigns targeting thousands of Staten Island students and people affected by substance abuse were launched under the “Staten Islanders Against Drug Abuse” banner.
“We won’t declare victory until there is not a single overdose death in our borough, but the 2017 numbers show we are finally moving in the right direction,” said Borough President James Oddo.
“We have to continue our collaborations and our multifaceted push back against this crisis,” he added. “We cannot and will not relent in 2018.”
The borough endured some difficult times in the last 12 months, particularly a threeweek summer stretch in which Staten Island suffered 29 suspected drug ODs — with 13 proving fatal.
In November, a woman snorting what remained of her overdosed husband’s heroin stash overdosed, too — with medics reviving the couple inside their Oakwood Heights home.
The final numbers for 2017 could change depending on the results of pending toxicology reports.
NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill joined the chorus of voices pleased by 2017’s figures and eager to do even better in 2018.
“Staten Island has been particularly hard hit, so it’s encouraging that overdose deaths in 2017 were down by more than 25% and that almost 300 overdoses were reversed using naloxone,” said O’Neill.
“As we begin 2018, the NYPD remains committed to working with the community, other city agencies and DA McMahon’s office as we battle the opioid epidemic and save lives together.”