A quiet killer with an unfamiliar name is tragically gaining notoriety, especially here in Ohio.
The drug is fentanyl, a medication often prescribed for late-stage cancer patients for pain management. The growing availability of black-market fentanyl is exacerbating the heroin and opioid epidemic. Fentanyl killed 998 Ohioans between 2014 and May 2015.
Illicitly manufactured forms of the drug are often combined with heroin and cocaine or sold as heroin without knowledge of the person buying it. It may also come in so-called "lookalike pills" that are marked to look like other prescription opioids that aren't nearly as lethal. Fentanyl can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin.
Between 2013 and 2014, the number of fentanyl-related unintentional overdose deaths in Ohio skyrocketed nearly 500 percent, from 84 to 502. Out of Ohio's 88 counties, Stark ranked seventh with 21 fentanyl-related overdose deaths in 2014. According to preliminary data obtained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the death toll in Ohio appears to have climbed higher in 2015. The problem was so bad last year, the Ohio Department of Health called on the CDC for assistance. On Tuesday, the CDC released a 53-page report with its findings and recommendations.
Those findings underscore why The Repository believes this issue deserves great scrutiny on local, state and federal levels.
Ohio, the report says, must target the eight counties where fentanyl deaths were highest, which includes Stark, as well as high-risk populations: white males with some or no college education, and those who've been incarcerated, have a history of mental health issues or a history of drug abuse.
Some of the recommendations made by the CDC are already in place in Stark County. For example, making the anti-overdose medication Naloxone available to all law enforcement and the public is already done through Stark County Mental Health and Addiction Recovery's Project Dawn program, according to the agency. The public can obtain free Naloxone kits through the Crisis Intervention and Recovery Center, Quest Recovery and Prevention Services (now known as CommQuest) and the Alliance City Health Department. They're also available at Aultman Hospital's emergency room and Walgreens and Rite-Aid pharmacies. However, the CDC recommends that first-responders receive additional training in the administration of Naloxone since it may take multiple doses to revive someone who has overdosed on Fentanyl.
Another suggestion — implementing a clean-needle exchange program — has been under review by the Canton City Health Department, according to Health Commissioner James Adams. A survey of community partners was done to gauge acceptance of such a program. Adams doesn't believe the department would have a lot of "push-back." It could take about six months to get a program up and running, but the department would need to find a funding source first. Needle-exchange programs are already in place in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Portsmouth and are aimed at reducing the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C and other diseases. While there is concern that programs that offer Naloxone and clean needles only enable continued drug abuse, Adams said the benefits far outweigh the negatives because they give people another chance at treatment.
The CDC is also recommending more aggressive public education and awareness, like the opiate prevention pilot curriculum that StarkMHAR rolled out to fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders in Lake and Sandy Valley schools this year. It plans to expand the program to 10 more districts next school year.
Sadly, even those steps will come too late for many people in Stark County. Stark County Coroner Dr. P.S. Murthy believes the death toll will climb in 2016 at the current pace. Last year, 75 people died of a drug overdose, 49 of which were attributed to heroin and/or fentanyl. So far this year his office has seen at least 14 drug overdose deaths, a number that will likely grow once additional autopsies are completed.
That means more heartache and more suffering, all delivered rapidly and senselessly by heroin and its potent accomplice fentanyl.