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WARREN -- Trumbull County has seen a modest decline in overdose deaths, but those combating the issue on the frontlines refrain from declaring a win over addiction.
Lauren Thorp, associate director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, as well as the project director for the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention, said 12 toxicology reports are awaiting results from the Trumbull County Coroner's Office. Of those cases, six are expected to come back as confirmed drug overdoses.
The count stands at 105 overdose deaths in 2023. This marks a decrease of the previous year's tally of 125 lives lost. It's the first time substance abuse workers have seen such a decrease in fatal overdoses since 2018 when 76 lives were lost, which was down from the 135 that were lost in 2017.
Thorp, one of many local people waging war on substance abuse, expressed relief mixed with skepticism.
"It's very affirming because of course it's frustrating year after year as we see these things, and the numbers steadily increase," Thorp said. "So we do celebrate maybe a small victory that the numbers are going down, but the numbers are still really high and we would love for that number to be zero but until it gets there, we will not be celebrating."
BY THE NUMBERS
Trumbull County has 617 nonfatal overdoses in 2023, according to statistics provided by ASAP.
The majority of them occurred in the 44485 ZIP code, encompassing the west side of Warren, with 122 overdoses. The area had just one more than the 121 overdoses that occurred in the 44483 ZIP code of the east side of Warren and Champion area. The 44484 ZIP code of Warren and Howland saw 90 overdoses and the 44446 ZIP code of Niles and Weathersfield had 71.
Looking at the demographics by gender and age, men made up 392, or 64%, of overdoses compared to 225 women, or 36%. The age range of 31 to 40 made up the majority of overdoses -- 223, or 36% -- of the overall tally, followed by ages 41 to 50, which had 139 overdoses and those aged 20 to 30 amounting to 122 overdoses.
The numbers, according to Thorp, align with what is being seen throughout Ohio.
COMBINATION DRUGS
The evolution of substance abuse is one Thorp has witnessed firsthand. When she started with the coalition, she said its primary concern was underage alcohol consumption. But over the years, a more sinister tide turned with the emergence of opioid medications like Oxycontin seeping into the fabric of the community.
The insidious wave soon morphed, with marijuana and heroin entering the fray as substances of choice among users. The emergence of fentanyl soon took precedence, heralding a new era of drug use with a deadly potency. Today, she observes a disturbing shift toward combining various substances that amplifies risks and complicates treatment strategies.
"When we first started working with the Trumbull County Coroner's Office to collect this data, there were not nearly this many combinations being laced together," Thorp said. "More things are being laced together, people are mixing different substances together more than ever."
The face of the epidemic has grown distressingly younger over the duration of her career. She said gone are the days when TAG Task Force commanders told her they might encounter the same individual grappling with addiction a decade later.
Now, those years have been shortened as fentanyl's lethal grip tightens.
RESOURCES
As part of the ASAP coalition, Thorp says it partners with "at least 20 different organizations in Trumbull County" ranging from treatment agencies, health departments and schools, along with people in recovery and parents of those recovering from addiction.
"We have a wide variety of people that come together monthly and look at the statistics then come up with intervention plans and targeted community events to get the education out there," Thorp said.
She said the group is looking to start a subcommittee targeted on the role its work can play in the schools.
"We also partner with the Trumbull County Combined Health District on getting Narcan out into the community," Thorp said.
Last year, for ASAP's Overdose Awareness Day in August, she said they were able to give out 800 Narcan kits to the community.
The fight against addiction extends to the courtrooms of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, where since January 2000 Judge Andrew D. Logan has been utilizing a specialized docket called the Drug Court Program.
Program coordinator Darryl Rodgers has been involved with the docket since its inception, explaining that it takes referrals from defense attorneys for their clients looking to get treatment for their drug addiction after an arrest for fourth- or fifth-degree felony drug-possession charges.
Rodgers said the drug court will work with defendants for about 18 months and provide them access to a litany of treatment options that can be tailored to address their specific needs.
"We're doing a good job trying to address the current concerns with fentanyl," Rodgers said. "There's more detoxes available, sober-living houses, peer supporters as an option to assist them. This conversation we've had over the last 10 years has equipped us to be better able to provide services for people struggling with the current epidemic of fentanyl abuse."
METHAMPHETAMINE ON RISE
A notable shift Thorp observed was that in this year's results, fentanyl, most commonly in the 90 percentile of toxicology report results, has dropped to 89 percent of drugs found in overdoses. She said the fatal drug still is both "prevalent and heavily available" in the Trumbull County area.
But while it's still a grim constant, Thorp sees a silver lining.
"The message is getting out there about the dangers of using fentanyl and fewer people returning to that drug," Thorp said.
Thorp has been with the board for 16 years and part of her role, she says, involves looking at data and trends to determine what the needs are long before they arise and predicting things as those needs evolve.
Thorp is looking to get ahead of the threat of a "steady increase" of methamphetamine use, which was reported in 22% of toxicology results in 2023.
"Availability is always going to impact drug abuse in your community and we're hearing that methamphetamine is highly available in our community," Thorp said.
Part of its emergence, Thorp said, was because of the work of organizations like ASAP educating people on the dangers of fentanyl. She said many people have switched to the use of methamphetamine as a perceived safer alternative, but the drug also is being mixed with fentanyl unbeknownst to those using it.
"That is scary and can lead to fatalities," Thorp said.
Moving forward, Thorp said more emphasis will be placed on providing education around the best practices for methamphetamine treatment.
"On the state level, they're doing more training on contingency management, which is the best practice for methamphetamine treatment and they're trying to make it more available and get a funding source for it," Thorp said.
She also highlights a pressing need to evolve toward more specialized areas, such as trauma-informed care, to tackle some of the roots of addiction.
"There's a big push through Children Services and the treatment agencies addressing the trauma in our community because we know trauma is a huge risk factor for future addiction," she said.