Portage County drug overdoses increase 33% from 2019 to 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic has raged over the past 18 months, another epidemic has unfortunately not lost pace in Portage County.

According to the Portage County Mental Health & Recovery Board, overdose deaths increased 33% from 2019 to 2020. In 2019, there were 33 overdose deaths, and in 2020, there were 44. 

More:Citing 'epidemic' suicide rate, Portage coroner makes case for additional investigator

The county seems to be on pace for another tragic year in 2021, according to John Garrity, executive director of the MHRB.

“It looks like we’re on track to have another rough year, despite all our efforts,” he said, explaining more cases are likely because 2021 isn’t over and there’s usually a backlog of cases under investigation at any given time because lab work takes time.

According to Wayne Enders, the administrator at the Portage County Coroner's office, there have been 25 confirmed overdose deaths in 2021 (including 23 with death certificates) and three more pending cases that look like they'll be ruled overdose deaths.

Thus far, 22 deaths this year have been attributed to overdoses of opioids, according to MHRB Associate Director Karyn Kravetz. Two more cases are pending. 

More:Suicide, overdose numbers on the rise again

COVID-19 has probably exacerbated the addiction and overdose problem, he added.

“I think the COVID pandemic has had a lot to do with it,” he said. “People are very isolated, and people have been under a lot of stress, and, for people who struggle with addiction, there’s a likelihood that they would turn back to their coping mechanism, which is more use.”

Job loss, isolation and possibly death due to COVID-19 among family and friends provides more challenges to users struggling with addiction, he said.

Polysubstance use or abuse was a challenge prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a major cause of overdose deaths, said Garrity.

Many, if not all of the cases, involved fentanyl in combination with other substances, often methamphetamines, heroin or cocaine, he added. 

“Unfortunately, traffickers are opportunists, and their latest trend is making fentanyl look like prescription opioids,” said Garrity. “They just want to sell the drug and don’t care about people’s lives at all.”

Rob Young, clinical services director at Townhall II, said users often tell themselves they’ll be careful or that their dealer has always provided clean drugs in the past, but he said Townhall II emphasizes that there may not be second chances with fentanyl laced in most street drug supplies in the county. 

“I think it’s our jobs as service providers, as clinicians, to just get the information out there and make people understand that this is the reality, that most substances in this county are laced or dirty — whatever you want to call it,” said Young. “We have to be so much more mindful, and we have to assume that there’s fentanyl in everything. We have to consistently say, ‘Look, this is what’s happening in the county; this is what the coroner is finding; this is what the police are finding.'”

Garrity said the MHRB has received $933,000 to from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration via the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to battle opioid use and overdoses.

“It funds the medically assisted treatment clinic at Townhall II and other kinds of services such as counseling and peer recovery support,” he said. “A large part of it goes to MAT.”

Coleman Health Services, Family and Community Services, Children’s Advantage, AxxessPointe, Hope Village and Hopetown also received portions of the grant money to fight opioid addition and overdoses, he added. 

Some of that funding also is protecting addicts at risk of overdose, according to Young and Garrity. Project DAWN kits, which include Naloxone, a substance that can act as an antidote immediately following an accidental overdose of opioids, also are funded by the grant money.

The Ohio Department of Health’s Project DAWN was established in 2015 in Portage County to help protect users from overdose.

The MHRB also is distributing fentanyl strips that can be used to detect fentanyl (and sometimes fentanyl analogues) alone or in combination with cocaine, other opioids and methamphetamines. Garrity said providing the strips may seem like a form of enabling to some, but it reflects a pragmatic understanding that some people, despite their best intentions, may use again. 

“We’re not trying to encourage drug use, but we don’t want them to die of an overdose, so we have a chance to get them treatment,” he said. 

Young said addicts who have recently overcome physical addition are often in a precarious position if they go home. If they happen to use an opioid after staying clean for a period, their tolerance has decreased, and what would have been a safe dose when they were using regularly might be an overdose due to their decreased tolerance.

Do you have a business or healthcare story you'd like to share? Reporter Bob Gaetjens can be reached at 330-541-9440, bgaetjens@recordpub.com and @bobgaetjens_rc.