BLUE ASH, Ohio — For the first time in nearly a decade, Hamilton County saw fewer than 400 accidental overdose deaths in a calendar year during 2023. The data is based on preliminary findings from the county coroner's office.
On Thursday, the White House Drug Czar championed the county as a model for the nation when it comes to tackling the drug and addiction crisis.
“It's everywhere,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “It's a global challenge.”
Gupta visited Hamilton County on Thursday and met with stakeholders trying to tackle overdose deaths, including representatives from several law enforcement departments, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and addiction response and public health experts.
“I'm not sure I've seen that elsewhere in this type of community across the country,” Gupta said of the county’s decline in accidental overdose deaths.
Stakeholders pointed to several keys for the success, but one stood out as a common theme: collaboration. Many said working together, rather than in individual silos, had been instrumental in changing the number of overdose deaths.
Other specific programs were championed too, including a treatment program being led in the Hamilton County Justice Center.
Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey called the jail a “ground zero” for people struggling with addiction.
“When people come to jail, rather than flounder and be sick, we give them medicine,” she said. “We’ll get them through that period of coming off of that drug.”
McGuffey said inmates are then paired with someone when they’re released who can support them and take them where they need to go for help. These are individuals that inmates meet while they’re still incarcerated.
Another program highlighted by local leaders: Hamilton County’s Quick Response Team.
The program pairs peer navigators with law enforcement officers to meet people struggling with addiction where they are.
“Our model is, ‘How can we help?’” said peer navigator Sarah Coyne.
Coyne said the program works because there are no labels, and teams continue to show up and work with individuals as long as they allow them to.
While numbers are trending in the right direction, new challenges continue to pop up.
“Most fentanyl samples today look much different than they did back in 2013, 2014,” said Hamilton County Crime Laboratory Director Brian Scowden.
Scowden said drug mixtures containing fentanyl are becoming more complex.
The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office reports that around 78% of the county’s overdose deaths involving fentanyl also involved xylazine. It’s an animal tranquilizer officials have warned is becoming more common in the county’s illicit drug supply.
“As we're controlling and trying to control the use of xylazine out there, they're finding other things that have very similar properties to the xylazine,” said Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco.
Sammarco said another veterinary sedative has been spotted in the area’s drug supply too: medetomidine. She said it acts similar to xylazine.
The discovery is cause for concern, as neither drugs are opioids and therefore do not respond to overdose-reversal medications like NARCAN.
“It's great on the fentanyl portion of it, it's just not as effective on any on the medetomidine effects,” she said.
Leaders agreed that a major goal looking forward was to improve education for kids and teens about drugs and addiction prevention.
“We must save as every life because every life is precious and worth saving,” Gupta said.
