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Opioid, heroin use hits St. Lawrence County hard

Posted 7/9/16

By JIMMY LAWTON St. Lawrence County has the second-highest opioid related-inpatient hospital admissions rate in the state and what’s more frightening is that in the past four years, drug-related …

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Opioid, heroin use hits St. Lawrence County hard

Posted

By JIMMY LAWTON

St. Lawrence County has the second-highest opioid related-inpatient hospital admissions rate in the state and what’s more frightening is that in the past four years, drug-related hospital stays have risen more than 60 percent.

It’s no secret that the county has seen a dramatic increase in heroin use. Law enforcement agencies in Massena and Ogdensburg have been vocal about the growing problem. Police agencies there report picking up discarded needles on a daily basis.

But the problem isn’t isolated to Massena and Ogdensburg. Law enforcement agencies in Canton and Potsdam have reported using naloxone to stop overdoses on multiple occasions.

But a report from the Department of Health highlights just how bad the situation is.

On the Rise

The report shows St. Lawrence County hit a record high number of inpatient opioid-related stays in 2013 when hospitals reported 962 inpatient stays for opioids-related incidents. That equates to nearly 860 people per hundred thousand, nearly double the 2010 rate of 457.

Although the number of opioid-related inpatient hospital admission declined to 828, or 734 per hundred thousand people, in 2014, the inpatient treatment still rose 62 percent over the four-year period.

That’s among highest average increases in the state.

St. Lawrence County’s four-year average is surpassed only by Oswego, Lewis, Orleans and Tompkins County, all of which have significantly lower inpatient admissions overall.

In 2014, the only county with a higher rate of opioid related inpatient hospital stays was Bronx County, which had 859 per hundred thousand. And while the rate there was higher than in St. Lawrence County, hospitals in Bronx County actually saw a 4.2 percent decrease in the four-year average.

In a county with a population estimated around 112,000, that’s pushing one percent of the total population and is well above one percent of the adult population, meaning roughly one inpatient stay occurs for every 100 adults in the county.

While many New York Counties are being impacted by what state officials are calling a heroin and opioid epidemic, it’s clear from the data provided by the health department that St. Lawrence County is among the hardest hit.

The report also shows that St. Lawrence County sees a high number of emergency room visits related opioid use.

In 2010, St. Lawrence County had 85 emergency room admissions for opioid-related treatment. That equals about 76 per hundred thousand people. That number has steadily increased to 177 or about 158 per hundred thousand people in 2014.

The percent change over the four-years represents a 108 percent increase in opioid-related emergency room admissions.

Facing the Problem

On a positive note, the problem has not gone unnoticed. Community, local municipal and state leaders have been working together to target the issue.

One tool being promoted by the Massena Drug Free Coalition and a support group known as Comrades of Hope is naloxone, a nasal sprayed drug that blocks the effects of opioids. The drug has been used at increasing rate in St. Lawrence County by first responders to counteract overdoses.

Both groups have worked to educate the public about the problem and provide training to carry naloxone.

At the state level, Assemblywoman Addie Russell has been pushing a bill that would require police to carry the drug. Under that legislation local law enforcement agencies could opt out, but state police would be trained and forced to carry it.

While the naloxone carry law did not yet pass, state officials did recently approve a series of bills focused on addressing the problem.

Included in that package is a law that would limit initial opioid prescription to a seven-day supply, and requires insurance companies to provide coverage for a minimum of 14 days of inpatient treatment without prior authorization.

Another law expands access to treatment and recovery services. It also increases the amount of time an individual incapacitated by drugs or alcohol can be kept at a treatment facility for detoxification services and requires those facilities to provide specific information in their discharge planning to help ensure individuals are connected with treatment after they detox.

The law also requires insurers to provide five days of coverage for withdrawal treatment and eliminates the need for prior authorization by managed care companies for buprenorphine and Vivitrol – drugs used to treat opioid dependence.

The package also includes legislation that requires reports on overdoses and naloxone use on a county-by-county basis as such information as hard to access by the public and lawmakers.

A freedom of information request to determine the number of opiate and heroin-related deaths took more than six months to receive.