Trumbull commissioners join counterparts state-wide in seeking opioid emergency designation

WARREN

Frustration is what drove Trumbull County commissioners to approve a resolution seeking a state of emergency for its opiate crisis, state Sen. Sean O’Brien said.

Commissioners joined their counterparts throughout Ohio to ask Gov. John Kasich and the General Assembly for the designation today.

“I understand what they are going through,” said O’Brien of Bazetta, D-32nd. “You see it just turning on the TV and reading the newspaper. What did we have, 189 overdoses, 26 deaths in March alone? That’s almost a death a day.”

The statistics O’Brien cited came from the Trumbull County Board of Mental Health and Recovery, whose director, April Caraway, helped the commissioners prepare the resolution.

Caraway told the commissioners and others attending the Wednesday meeting that the overdose death total for the county is at 39 for the first three months of the year, which is on pace to exceed the record 106 in 2016.

“We are all as counties trying to get the state governor’s office to put some more money toward this problem,” Caraway said.

Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said Kasich is giving “a lot of service” from Columbus. “We need more action.”

The governor’s office responded by saying the state is spending about $1 billion per year on the problem. That includes $650 million in health care for Ohioans with addictions and behavioral health issues, $88 million to mental health boards, and treatment programs in the prisons, spokesperson Emmalee Kalmbach said.

She said a state of emergency would not automatically carry with it any funding for Trumbull or other counties.

“At the end of the day, regardless of the state of the issue, the governor is already treating this drug epidemic with a sense of emergency,” Kalmbach said.

In Monday’s Vindicator, the editorial board wrote, “The clear and present danger in Trumbull County, however, demands a rapid response. Now with the county of 200,000 standing as ground zero in the destructive epidemic and now with no end in sight to the exponential increase in casualties there, emergency action and assistance cannot be delayed. We call on state and federal officials to muster up the requisite will and compassion to act promptly.”

Trumbull County ranked 12th highest in overdose deaths per 100,000 people in the most recent Ohio Department of Health statistics from 2015.

Read more about the matter in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.