Dr. Kevin Terrell
Overdose deaths in Bartholomew County continued to soar to a new record total during 2022.
There had been 39 confirmed overdose deaths in the county as of Thursday — the highest total on record for a single year, according to figures from the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office.
By comparison, there were 33 overdose deaths in 2021. Fatal drug overdoses have risen in six of the previous seven years on record since the county recorded six overdose deaths in 2015.
Local officials have said that the increase in overdose deaths in recent years is largely being fueled by a more dangerous drug supply and the growing prevalence of fentanyl in Columbus.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is more potent than heroin but cheaper to produce and distribute.
The use of the drug has surged across the country, including Bartholomew County, causing officials to sound the alarm, with the drug now being increasingly laced with other drugs, including methamphetamine and counterfeit pills because it is cheaper and more powerful, leading to a surge in what officials believe are unintentional overdose deaths.
Fentanyl has become so prevalent locally that a drug treatment center operated by Columbus Regional Health hardly sees positive tests for other opioids anymore, Dr. Kevin Terrell, medical director of CRH’s Treatment and Support Center, said previously.
U.S. overdose death rates began steadily climbing in the 1990s driven by opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids including heroin and — most recently — fentanyl. Last year, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses — the highest tally in U.S. history.
“I’ve seen only one positive (test) for heroin in the last year and a half,” Terrell said. “We just do not see heroin at all in our community. It’s entirely fentanyl.”
In response to a surge in overdose deaths that has killed at least 103 people in Bartholomew County since the beginning of 2020, local officials have formed a multi-disciplinary group that will review all local overdose deaths and suicides.
The group, which met for the first time in November, includes representatives from the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress, Columbus Regional Health, Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, Council for Youth Development Bartholomew County, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., Centerstone, among other organizations.
The group will examine each overdose death and suicide to examine what happened, what gaps may exist in local prevention efforts and develop data-informed prevention initiatives to prevent future deaths, officials said previously.
