As court cases continue, a shift in drug use seen
Methamphetamine re-emerges as Butler County awaits cash.
Butler County is still suffering the effects of the opioid epidemic, which has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but several lawsuits seeking cash to help solve the drug abuse problem are far from over.
A year ago, just before the pandemic began, Butler County and other jurisdictions signed onto One Ohio, which would allow local governments to share the proceeds of a hoped-for $1 billion settlement.
The state released amounts the various communities might receive if an agreement could be reached with the big pharmaceutical companies. The total for all 24 governmental entities and the county was $47.5 million. The county could get the largest share at $24.4 million, and Jacksonburg would receive the smallest with $2,610. The largest cities, Hamilton and Middletown, where the epidemic has been most devastating, would receive $6.1 million and $5.2 million, respectively.
The county sued 20 drug companies and distributors for $5 million in November 2017 in federal court. Several other jurisdictions, including Hamilton and Middletown, followed suit. Those cases were pulled into what is known as multidistrict litigation (MDL), a tool used to consolidate similar actions and seek quicker resolutions. This case is ongoing.
Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said “we haven’t seen a penny yet” from the lawsuits. One of the key defendants, Purdue Pharma, sought protection in bankruptcy court, which is delaying the federal lawsuit.
“The overall global settlement is still up in the air as far as any finality is concerned,” Gmoser said.
While the court cases are crawling along, fatal drug overdoses have started creeping back up. There have been 65 confirmed drug overdose deaths this year. There were 177 last year, up from 159 the previous year. The five-year-high came in 2017, when 232 people died.
Addiction officials said users moved from heroin to other drugs, primarily methamphetamine, when deadly fentanyl-laced heroin flooded the illegal drug market. Fentanyl was present in 87% (154) of last year’s overdoses.
Butler County Coroner Dr. Lisa Mannix said the current trend is troubling.
“While the COVID-19 pandemic has garnered much of the attention of the world, it is important to keep in mind we are still fighting the opioid crisis,” Mannix said. “The re-emergence of methamphetamine has been a very unwelcome occurrence. It is troubling to see that 49 of the fatal overdoses that came through the Butler County Coroner’s Office have both methamphetamine and fentanyl at the time of their death.”
Tiffany Lombardo, director of addiction services for the county mental health and addiction board, said while the number of overdoses has increased during the coronavirus pandemic, they haven’t seen “huge spikes” other counties have experienced. Montgomery County had a 30% spike in the first six months of last year.
The board has not received federal coronavirus relief funding to help with addiction, but it did receive a $1.9 million state grant last fall that allowed it to enhance five or six existing programs, like the Harm Reduction Team.
Lombardo said that team, which is in partnership with four other counties, was a big factor in being able to support the community and prevent addiction crises. The team communicates directly with people in the community providing education, support and Narcan when necessary to prevent overdoses.
“We have seen a small uptick in our overdose deaths. What we haven’t seen is the huge spike that some other counties in Ohio and the area have seen,” Lombardo said. “I would say that’s a testament to a lot of the programs and a lot of the outreach that we did irregardless of what was happening during pandemic and things being shut down.”
Those types of preventative activities are part of the reason the county and others sued the drug companies in the first place. While the heroin epidemic was very costly for governments to handle, it was a burden on everyone from the law enforcement to Children Services, Butler County wants the money to make a lasting difference.
When they filed the lawsuit Commissioner Don Dixon likened it to the tobacco litigation which was very successful. He said education and prevention are keys to beating the opioid epidemic.
“The county can’t do this financially on its own,” Dixon said. “This is the kind of money it’s going to take to have an impact, to have a real plan. I think the drug companies are responsible somewhat for that. I think the distributors are too, the more pills they sell the more money they make. It will be the beginning of a global solution.”