Trumbull to receive funding for drug treatment

Staff report

WARREN

The Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board will receive $118,166 in new funding from the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services for treatment of prescription-drug addiction.

Trumbull is one of 20 counties that qualified for a larger share of the $5 million in federal funds based on its rate of unintentional prescription-drug deaths.

The funding, passed down to the state from the federal government, was distributed across Ohio using one formula for Trumbull and 19 other agencies, and by a different formula for the other agencies.

Besides Trumbull, the other county agencies are Montgomery, Vinton, Jackson, Scioto, Crawford, Ross, Brown, Clinton, Hardin, Adams, Jefferson, Clermont, Hocking, Clark, Fayette, Greene, Athens, Preble and Franklin.

April J. Caraway, executive director of Trumbull’s board, said it’s not clear yet what the guidelines will be for using the money.

The agency is treating an increasing number of people for substance abuse this year, however, Caraway said — 1,568, up from 1,492 people last year.

The most commonly used prescription drugs in Trumbull County are methadone, oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet) and hydrocodone (Vicodin, Lortabs), Caraway said.

The agency has been working with the Trumbull Ashtabula Law Enforcement Task Force to encourage people to dispose of their unused prescription drugs. A survey indicated that 53 percent of people get pills from friends and relatives.

“Pain medication, when abused, ceases to treat pain and instead, causes it,” Gov. Ted Strickland said in announcing the allocation earlier this month.

“Too many lives have been lost, and too many people have become lost chasing these pills. These additional resources will help counties serve Ohioans that have fallen victim to this devastating epidemic and take precautions to prevent additional instances of abuse,” Strickland said.

Prescription-drug abuse has reached an epidemic in Ohio, where the death rate due to unintentional drug poisoning has increased more than 300 percent from 1999 to 2007 and is now the leading cause of injury death in Ohio, Strickland said.