Fatal drug overdoses in Bartholomew County have declined so far this year compared to 2020, when overdose deaths reached their highest level since at least 2015.
As of Tuesday, there had been 12 confirmed drug overdose deaths in Bartholomew County so far this year, the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office said.
If that trend continues, the county would be on pace for roughly 21 drug overdose deaths this year, which would be a decrease from the 31 deaths reported last year. However, it is unclear how many suspected drug overdoses, if any, are still pending toxicology results.
By comparison, there were 21 confirmed drug overdose deaths in the county as of July 20, 2020, and nine at the same point in 2019.
So far this year, the most common drugs involved in local overdose deaths have been fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine that is increasingly being laced with other drugs, including methamphetamine, because it is cheaper and more powerful, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“We’re a lot lower than we were last year, but we’re still a little bit higher than two years ago,” said Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting. “Obviously, zero would be preferable.”
The updated figures from the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office came just days after the federal government reported that U.S. drug overdose deaths soared to an all-time high last year as the pandemic raged.
Last year, at least 92,183 people in the United States died of a drug overdose — a 30% increase from 2019 and up more than five-fold from 17,415 in 2000, according to preliminary figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Indiana, 2,268 drug overdose deaths were reported last year, up 33% from 1,704 in 2019 and up more than 10-fold since 2000, when there were 214 reported deaths, preliminary CDC records show.
At least 1,828 of the deaths in Indiana last year involved opioids, 1,600 involved synthetic opioids and 700 involved psychostimulants, according to the CDC.
Overall, at least 20,958 Hoosiers have died from drug overdoses from 2000 to 2020, with about 43% of them occurring during the past five years on record.
Officials across the country, including in Bartholomew County, have said the COVID-19 pandemic has likely contributed the increase in drug overdose deaths last year, with the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress (ASAP) calling it a “terrible, perfect storm” of stress and isolation.
The spread of the virus caused many in-person recovery meetings in the community to be postponed or canceled, and some local homeless shelters and treatment facilities were temporarily closed or had restricted access, which may have made it harder for people to continue with their treatment and recovery.
That was then compounded by financial stress, social isolation and a spike in unemployment that had been seen since the Great Depression, which local officials said set the stage for a surge in relapses.
Earlier this year, officials at Columbus Regional Health’s Treatment and Support Center (TASC) said they now contending with a substantial rise in substance abuse and relapses.
TASC, which opened its doors in July 2019, provides a range of outpatient treatments for substance abuse disorders including medication-assisted treatment in certain cases.
The facility’s medical director, Dr. Kevin Terrell, told The Republic in a previous interview that one “worrisome” trend that has emerged over the past year is the amount of people who are testing positive for fentanyl — including many people who don’t even know they’ve been using it.
As of last month, more than half of people who were seeking help at TASC for heroin abuse were testing negative for the drug, but turned out to be using fentanyl, which Terrell said “is hitting our community hard.”
“People don’t even know what they’re getting on the street right now,” Nolting said. “I mean, even the dealers don’t really know. Of course, let’s be honest, drug dealers aren’t the most reputable source of information and knowledge.”
But as fentanyl continues to pop up in more and more places, including counterfeit pills, local officials have sounded the alarm.
In May, the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Columbus Police Department, the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department and Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop issued a joint warning to the community after a spike in overdose deaths.
One of the big concerns, officials said at the time, was the amount of fentanyl being seen in the overdose cases.
“The most concerning thing is that people are dying,” said Bartholomew County Deputy Coroner Jay Frederick. “…It only takes one time of getting a hold of a lethal amount of fentanyl and you’re dead.”
