The opioid crisis affects everyone living in Geauga County.
Not only does it steal the lives of those we love, addiction to opioids and other illegal drugs ruins families, destroys hope, escalates crime, endangers law enforcement, overloads our court system and absorbs more and more tax dollars as government allocates funds to defend against the scourge.
In this series on opiate and heroin abuse in Geauga County, we will explore some of the broad topics and personal stories associated with the disease of drug addiction and how it affects families and the community.
Solutions are few.
A lot of time and resources go toward keeping overdoes victims alive. Fire department personnel and law enforcement, as well as qualified family members, carry Narcan, a nasal medication to counteract an overdose. Hospitals have special detoxification units and rehab facilities are busy.
The jail at the Geauga County Safety Center has its share of prisoners coming painfully off their drug of choice and officials say better than 95 percent of the incarcerated population has an addiction problem with drugs or alcohol.
Recidivism is very high.
Positive solutions to the problem include recovery homes for addicts who can find and afford space in one, and education of youth and adults.
This series is not all-inclusive. It touches the surface of an epidemic for which there currently is no vaccine.
But each story is designed to serve up a taste of the bitter brew officials, facilities and families are struggling to swallow with barely enough resources and, often, very little hope.
Local Overdose Deaths Spike in 2017
At least 80 Geauga County residents have died from unintentional drug overdoses since 2010, according to the Ohio Department of Health’s statistics.
Information from 2018 is not available on the ODH website general findings, but in 2017, the record shows Geauga had 24 overdose deaths.
And there may well have been more in 2017 than the ODH calculated so far.
Geauga County Coroner John Urbancic said it is likely the 2017 figure is 25 and, since it often takes six months for autopsy results to reach him, more deaths that occurred last year are likely to be reported this spring.
“We still have 14 other cases,” he said April 9, adding he is confident some will be drug and/or alcohol related.
Additionally, some individuals may have died in Geauga County, but were taken to Tri-Point Medical Center in Lake County or Hillcrest Hospital in Cuyahoga County before being pronounced dead.
“It’s possible there are a third more than what we actually have,” Urbancic said.
Over the last three to four years, the drug overdose death tally averaged 15 to 16 per year, said Urbancic, who has worked in the Geauga coroner’s office as assistant coroner or coroner for eight of the last 11 years.
Cuyahoga County’s medical examiner performs autopsies for the 14-county region and has been overwhelmed with the increased demand for autopsies and testing fatalities for toxins, i.e. drugs, he said.
Last year, the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office said they have to limit the number of autopsies they can do. The office was in danger of losing its accreditation because its doctors were being overworked, Urbancic said.
The numbers are going up and he said he doesn’t think they have peaked yet because there are so many options a user or addict can choose.
“We have also seen a change in which drugs are killing people,” he said.
Several years ago, heroin was replaced by the opioid fentanyl as the leading cause of drug overdose deaths, he said.
“Two years ago, we started seeing carfentanyl,” Urbancic said, adding word got out that as little as a grain of salt of the elephant tranquilizer is deadly to humans.
So drug users have been switching to methamphetamine and cocaine to avoid the synthetic opioid, he said.
“Now dealers are starting to add carfentanyl to meth and cocaine,” Urbancic said. One reason is an opioid addict needs that little hit of opioid to avoid withdrawal.
The other reason is the dealers can then get a meth or cocaine user hooked on opioids, he said, adding the dealers are adjusting to keep their sales up.
“It’s a business,” Urbancic said.