Trumbull County seeks emergency declaration for opiate epidemic

WARREN — The Trumbull County commissioners have approved a resolution asking Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the Ohio General Assembly and Ohio's Congressional delegation to declare Ohio's opiate epidemic an emergency.

Such a declaration would increase investments in prevention, treatment, recovery support, education and drug interdiction "to end this epidemic," according to the resolution.

"We're getting a lot of lip service," from the state, Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said. Now he wants action.

April Caraway, executive director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, said she and the commissioners were both proposing a resolution of this type at about the same time, so she provided the commissioners with the language for the resolution.

It came from the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities, which lobbies on behalf of mental health and recovery boards in the state.

The association is urging county commissioners from all over Ohio to pass a similar resolution.

The state's opiate crisis is the worst per-capita in the state's most urban areas, but Trumbull County has per-capita rates close to those of the urban areas, as does a block of southern Ohio counties.

"I've never seen anything like it," Caraway said of Trumbull County's most recent overdose spike in March and early April. "We're extremely high."