COLUMBUS, Ohio – Black tar heroin from coastal Mexico clawed its way into the lives of more Ohioans in 2013, contributing to 983 overdose deaths, a 41 percent jump over the previous year, according to new Ohio Department of Health data.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
The spike in heroin overdoses was the most glaring statistic in a report showing yet another record year for drug-related deaths in Ohio: 2,110 people died in 2013 — the most recent year for which figures are available — compared to 1,914 in 2012, which also was a record. Prescription drug deaths rose a more modest 6.8 percent, to 726 from 680 the previous year.
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A particularly potent version of black tar heroin, widely available throughout Ohio, is the culprit. It is often delivered like pizza in just minutes by crews of drivers whose bosses hail from Xalisco, Mexico, where locals switched from growing sugarcane to opium poppies.
“These numbers illustrate how big the problem is. No community is immune to it. You can’t turn them off like a faucet,” said Marcie Seidel, executive director of the Drug Free Action Alliance, a private organization that gets state funding. “You want it to end all of a sudden and it doesn’t. Controlling a problem like this is long-term.”
Reacting to the new data, officials pointed out the number of drug-fighting and treatment efforts that have been undertaken in the last four years.
“Many of these initiatives were launched in 2013 or later, and it will take some time for their full impact to be reflected in Ohio’s drug overdose deaths. We know that we’re doing the right things, but the data underscore the need to redouble our efforts,” ODH director Richard Hodges.
See a timeline of anti-drug initiatives in Ohio since 2011
An initiative that Hodges claims has had an immediate impact is the expanded availability and use of naloxone, a drug that has been shown to prevent deaths during drug overdoses, pointing to a 2013 pilot program that he says saved 63 lives in Lorain County.
As the report was released Thursday, First Lady Karen Kasich joined 1,500 young people from 37 Ohio counties who marched from Huntington Park to the Statehouse to rally for a drug-free lifestyle.
“The majority of kids do not use substances,” Seidel said. “We have reason to feel hopeful.”
But from city centers to the suburbs and rural communities, Ohio’s drug epidemic is raging. People first became addicted to pain pills, but when they could no longer find or pay for them, they turned to heroin, which was more affordable and had become readily available. About 80 percent who end up on heroin began with pain pills.
The state has lost more than 10,000 people to fatal overdoses since 2002. An Ohioan dies from a drug overdose every four hours on average.
Fatal drug overdoses remain the leading cause of accidental death in Ohio, above car crashes, a trend that began in 2007.