Ohio Republicans say secure border will curb overdoses, but drug crisis is complicated
Haley BeMiller
Before making his case for a secure southern border, J.D. Vance began his first U.S. Senate campaign ad with a blunt question: "Are you racist?"
State Sen. Matt Dolan used a pencil in another ad to illustrate the small amount of fentanyl that can kill a person.
Ohio's Republican U.S. Senate candidates and elected officials have sounded the alarm over the U.S.-Mexico border as the state contends with addiction, overdose deaths and large seizures of drugs. They say a wall, coupled with more agents to patrol the border and comb through shipments, will keep drugs from reaching Ohio.
The issue is a key talking point for the GOP in this year's elections, not just in Ohio, but around the nation. Most Republicans place the blame on President Joe Biden.
Drug abuse in Ohio: What is causing the crisis?
In Ohio, substance abuse is a real problem: Law enforcement and recovery specialists are seeing dangerous drugs flood communities, trapping people in a cycle of addiction that sometimes ends in death.
But these stakeholders – and even politicians such as Vance – say the state's drug crisis won't be solved by border security alone.
"There’s a supply problem," said Vance, whose mother struggled with addiction. "You don’t want people dying from taking the drugs in the first place. When they’re ready to take the road to recovery, you want there to be options available."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5,204 Ohioans died from drug overdoses in 2020, with Black men dying at a higher rate than any other group. A 2019 report from the Ohio Department of Health indicated that fentanyl was involved in more than three-quarters of overdose deaths, and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine killed more people than heroin.
Experts attribute the number of deaths in 2020 – the highest in recent years – to the COVID-19 pandemic. Treatment centers saw an influx of people who struggled with isolation and lost access to resources that kept them on the road to recovery.
"People were depressed and afraid," said Robin Harris, executive director of the Gallia-Jackson-Meigs Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services. "We had all sorts of political upheaval going on."
Harris said her team is trying to emerge from the pandemic and increase contact with people in the community. But she and other organizations have encountered a new challenge: A form of methamphetamine that, according to Harris, sends people to emergency rooms with symptoms mirroring psychosis.
Capt. Terry Ables of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said this version of the drug is crystal meth manufactured by "super labs" in Mexico – not the meth people cook in their kitchens. State task forces seized 472 pounds of meth last year compared to 168 pounds in 2020.
"I think they were looking for more of something that wasn’t going to kill them instantly," Ables said. "I think the cartels took advantage of that as well."
Still, fentanyl is the drug that worries officials more than anything else. It's 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and a kilogram could kill up to 500,000 people.
Increasingly, drug manufacturers are lacing heroin, cocaine and even marijuana with fentanyl – often without users realizing it.
"We’ve come to expect fentanyl most likely will be in almost every street drug that’s out there," Harris said.
Who's to blame for Ohio's drug abuse crisis?
Ohio Republicans are quick to say the Biden administration is failing to secure the southern border and keep drugs out of the United States. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, echoing those concerns, traveled to Texas last year and visited with members of the Ohio National Guard who were deployed to assist border patrol agents.
"I don’t think the federal government is doing what it needs to do along the border," DeWine said in an interview this week.
A 2020 report from the Drug Enforcement Administration indicated that fentanyl seizures at the southwest border have increased steadily since 2016, long before Biden took office. U.S. Border Patrol and Customs agents in south Texas reported a 1,066% increase in fentanyl from the 2020 to 2021 fiscal years.
U.S. Rep. Mike Carey, a Columbus Republican, said all levels of government have a role in drug treatment and prevention. But he contends federal officials, first and foremost, need to tackle the U.S.-Mexico border and crack down on China's supply of fentanyl precursors.
"The one thing we can do that the state and local communities cannot do is we can build a wall, increase the border agents and do the things that are necessary to stop the drugs from coming across the border," Carey said.
Still, some experts dispute that security changes will stem the flow of drugs. Lee Hoffer, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University, said the U.S. government has targeted the drug supply for years with few victories. Hiring more patrol agents will only force suppliers to find a new strategy, he said, and they'll adapt.
Officials should instead focus on curbing demand for drugs by getting more people into treatment, Hoffer argued.
"Suggesting that we’re going to stop the flow of drugs coming into the United States – it’s not like this is a new problem," he said. "The War on Drugs started in the 60s."
Holistic approach to drug abuse
Meanwhile, providers have a laundry list of ideas they believe would improve patient care and curb addiction rates: Permanent coverage for telehealth services, increased data-sharing between stakeholders and an expansion of medication-assisted treatment, among other initiatives.
"The drug epidemic still remains a public health crisis, and we really should still be treating it as a public health emergency," said Barbara Marsh, chief operating officer for OneFifteen, a recovery treatment center in Dayton.
Prevention is also key, and some stakeholders contend those efforts have been underfunded compared to treatment initiatives. Harris, of the Gallia-Jackson-Meigs Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services, said it's important to ensure prevention encompasses other supports such as housing and job training.
Without that, Harris said, many people struggling with addiction will be unable to rebuild their lives.
"If a person doesn’t have the basics of adequate housing and a job that sustains a decent lifestyle," she said, "then all we’re doing is keeping them in this hole."
Haley BeMiller is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.