News

Despite Strategies, Heroin Deaths Up in Ohio

Rick McCrabb

07/26/2015

July 26--BUTLER COUNTY -- For the better part of a year, Butler County has taken steps to reduce the number of heroin-related deaths after officials called it an "epidemic."

Since then, Middletown has hosted three Heroin Summits, heroin abuse billboards have been purchased and placed around the county, a local church is hosting weekly praying meetings, and support groups have been formed.

Still heroin appears to have an even tighter stronghold on residents.

Despite all the strategies started throughout the county, heroin-related deaths continue to rise, according to Martin Schneider, an administrator for the Butler County Coroner's Office. He said there were 85 heroin-related deaths in the county the first six months this year, up from 56 during the same time in 2014. There were 103 deaths in 2014, he said. At the current rate, there would be 170 this year, an increase of 65 percent.

And the number of doses of Narcan administered by the Middletown Division of Police to overdosing patients has more than doubled this year compared to the same time in 2014, said Capt. Todd Day. From January through June of 2014, 122 doses were administered in the city, compared to 275 so far this year, a jump of 125 percent, Day said. He said the biggest spike comparing month to month occurred in February when the number of doses skyrocketed from 28 to 76, an increase of 171 percent.

When Day budgeted the cost of medications used by paramedics, it was $90,000, and about $30,000 was earmarked for Narcan. He said the cost of Narcan has dropped from $50 to $38 per dose.

Middletown City Manager Doug Adkins, who spearheaded the Heroin Summits, has said heroin killed 49 people in the city in 2014 and strained the city's public safety budget. He said Middletown spent $1.5 million in 2014 dealing with the affects of heroin.

For the first time in the last 35 years -- since these statistics were kept -- natural deaths were not the leading cause of death among cases investigated by the Butler County Coroner's Office.

Drug overdoses overtook natural causes as the No. 1 cause of death in the 400 cases accepted by the coroner's office in 2014, said Dr. Lisa Mannix, Butler County coroner. She said there were 137 drug overdoses in the county in 2014, one more death than natural cause deaths. Of those drug deaths, 103, or 75 percent, were caused by heroin use, she said. The year before, the county reported 118 drug deaths and 60 of them, or 51 percent, were heroin related, Mannix said.

Meanwhile, Warren County reported a slight drop in the number of heroin-related deaths last year compared to 2013. In Warren County, there were 42 drug deaths investigated by the coroner's office and 14 of them, or 33 percent, were heroin overdoses. But A. Doyle Burke, chief investigator, said seven more potential heroin deaths are pending. There were 16 heroin overdoses in Warren in 2013 and 11 in 2012, according to statistics from the county.

Adkins was told that some people have said there is no way to control heroin's grip on the city. Adkins said Middletown must try to reverse the recent trend.

"There is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by trying to deal with the problem proactively," he has said. "Even partial success saves lives, reduces crime and reduces taxpayer expenses."

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser has estimated that 85 percent of the cases he sees are related to drugs, and Middletown Municipal Court Judge Mark Wall said about 50 percent of court cases are connected to heroin, either because the person used the drug or stole to support their drug habit.

In an email to participants in Monday's Heroin Summit at Atrium Medical Center, the fourth this year, Adkins thanked them for their dedication and said he was "counting on a solution to this problem which affects the quality of life for all."

At the meeting, the groups are scheduled to present their action plans, the number of independent meetings they have attended and what each group has accomplished.

DeAnna Shores, a committee member representing the Safety Council of Southwest Ohio, said she hopes the group takes the meeting from planning to action.

"I'm ready to go," she said.

She said the task force includes "real decision makers," and she's confident their ideas will reduce heroin use.