Last week brought a disconcerting reminder that our local fight against addiction will continue to be an ongoing challenge.
Last year, local officials were guardedly optimistic about a turn of the tide in the grimmest outcome connected to the addiction crisis: fatal overdoses. In 2023, 25 people died from drug overdoses in Bartholomew County. While that number remains unacceptably high, it also reflects a 39% decline compared with 2022 and marks the fewest yearly deaths since 2019.
Local officials said last year that they believed there were a number of things that led to last year’s sharp decline. Better information sharing across agencies and service providers, the prevalence of lifesaving naloxone and expanded access to treatment and services have indeed been difference makers. And these things, without a doubt, will continue to save lives.
Yet The Republic’s Andy East reported last week that through May 22, there have been twice as many fatal overdoses in 2024 — eight so far this year compared with four at the same point in 2023. While overdose deaths are still on a pace well below the record numbers of prior years, the recent spike is also a reminder that addiction remains at crisis levels in our community.
Fentanyl continues to be the most common element in most fatal overdoses. Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting said the powerful synthetic opioid shows up commonly in drug screens of substances even if drug users think they are using some other drug.
Along with naloxone, which can save the life of someone who has overdosed on opioids, fentanyl test strips are available and can help detect if a substance has been laced with the deadly synthetic that has exploded in street drugs nationwide.
Meantime, Dr. Kevin Terrell, medical director at Columbus Regional Health’s Treatment and Support Center, or TASC, told East that while naloxone has reduced fatal overdoses, a cold reality remains:
“I don’t have any reason to believe that (last year’s) decrease in overdose deaths was a result of fewer people using drugs,” Terrell told East. “The number of new patients we see every week who struggle with opioid addiction continues to increase, as it has since we opened in July 2019.”
If that’s a hard truth to hear, it’s also one that our community needs to. Because here is greater truth: If you are reading this, you may be able to save the life of a loved one or someone you know who is battling addiction.
Tell them that help is available. Offer to help connect them to services such as these:
- ASAP, the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress in Bartholomew County, asapbc.org, (812) 418-8705, or the ASAP Hub at 1531 13th St., Suite 1102.
- TASC, the Treatment and Support Center at Columbus Regional Health, crh.org/physician-practices/treatment-and-support-center, 812-375-3784, or 2630 22nd St., Columbus.
- Call 988, the 24/7 crisis and suicide prevention lifeline.
Making the call or reaching out for help is the first step in breaking the grip of addiction, and there are many other avenues in addition to these.
Communication is critical, and the more informed we are, the better we can help those in our community to take the first step in helping themselves.
