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'It has not gone away': Cumberland County task force tries to address opioid crisis during COVID-19 pandemic

Fayetteville Observer - 2/6/2021

Feb. 6—Health officials are gearing up to deal with an opioid epidemic that they fear has gotten worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Opioids are drugs that are often prescribed to help people deal with pain, but can become addictive.

Chris Jacobs is coordinator of the Cumberland-Fayetteville Opioid Response Team (C-FORT), a group that was formed to find ways to deal with the crisis. The group has more than 80 members who support opioid reduction efforts, he said.

"They are working hard to implement county and state policies that reduce the number of opioid pills dispensed," he said. "They also advocate for alternatives to opioids when appropriate."

Jacobs, who is a health services planner and evaluator for the Cumberland County Health Department, said in an email response to questions about the opioid situation that the county is higher than the state average in almost every opioid overdose statistic.

"Cumberland's unintentional overdose death rate, opioid pill-per resident rate, opioid-related hospitalizations, total overdoses, and deaths have all been historically higher than most of the state, as well as being higher on a month-to-month basis," he said.

Jacobs said the county is "heavily medicated with a lot of pills."

"We have a lot of people in long-term opioid treatment, which increases the likelihood of more addiction and abuse," he said. "We also have a lot of heroin here, which is cheap and easy to get."

Heroin is being laced with fentanyl, which makes the drug even more dangerous. Cumberland County has many economically distressed residents who are experiencing overdoses of either heroin, fentanyl or both, Jacobs said.

The opioid statistics went down in 2019 and 2020, Jacobs said.

"We have seen a reduction in recent years because of county initiatives the city and county implemented, which include the formation of C-FORT and an increase in working partnerships with local treatment providers and harm-reduction staff working in the community," he said.

Focus changes from opioids to COVID-19

Before COVID-19 hit about a year ago, health officials were largely focused on the opioid crisis.

Opioid-related deaths in North Carolina increased by 30% in 2016 and had gone up by 1,000% since 1999. More than 12,000 of the state's residents died of opioid-related overdoses during those 17 years, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. The crisis was brought on by doctors prescribing more opioids at higher doses, it said.

State Attorney General Josh Stein said Thursday that the opioid crisis was brought on by over-prescribing.

"Beginning in the late '90s and continuing for about 20 years, as opioid prescribing per capita increased, opioid overdose deaths jumped in near-perfect lockstep with the increase in pill prescriptions," he said.

Stein announced a $573 million settlement with a marketing firm that did consulting work for an opioid manufacturer. North Carolina's share of the settlement, which is about $19 million, will be used to deal with the crisis through treatment centers, programs and other efforts, he said.

A spokeswoman for Stein said counties play a critical role in combating the opioid epidemic.

Stein said health officials have rightly been focused on COVID-19 for the past year.

"But we cannot forget the still-raging opioid epidemic that is the deadliest drug epidemic in our nation's history," he said. "Even though it has receded in the news, it has not gone away."

Jacobs said COVID-19 became an "all hands on deck" situation that caused health officials to put the opioid crisis and other issues on the back burner. Health officials also realize that COVID-19, which is caused by a highly infectious coronavirus, has created isolation and barriers to opioid treatment.

"It remains to be seen specifically for Cumberland County, but COVID appears to be worsening the opioid epidemic for the entire state, so I am assuming that Cumberland is suffering, as well," Jacobs said.

'When, not if'

Jacobs said that in September, Cumberland County had the highest number of opioid overdose visits to emergency rooms in the state with 32. The county had been among the top five counties in the state before September but has not been that high since, he said.

"I think this number is lower because of a combination of COVID reducing access to the ER, C-FORT and other county partnership efforts, and the use of other drugs," he said.

Jacobs said he remains concerned about the number of opioid pills prescribed in Cumberland County. A national study found that one in four people in a long-term opioid treatment program will become addicted and start to abuse their medication, he said.

"It seems like a when, not if, that we'll see even more people suffering from addiction," he said.

Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3572.

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