Fatal overdoses in North Carolina had finally started to decline.
After steadily rising for years, deaths dropped by 7% in 2018, despite the growing prevalence of fentanyl, an opioid even more potent and deadly than heroine.
The state had aggressively invested in fighting the opioid crisis โ it expanded access to evidence-based treatment, sent Narcan to at-risk areas and reduced medical dispensing of opioids.
Low overdose numbers in 2019 seemed to confirm the efforts were paying off.
People in the NC Department of Health and Human Services started believing it was possible to meet a goal they had set back in 2016: to cut the expected overdoses in 2024 by 20%.
โThere was a lot of hope in those two years before the pandemic,โ said Mary Beth Cox, a substance use epidemiologist DHHS.
Then COVID-19 hit.
โWho knows where we would have been if the pandemic hadnโt happened?โ Cox said.
INCREASED ISOLATION, DISAPPEARING TREATMENT AND SUPPORT GROUPS
Loneliness and social isolation became more common. It became harder to send Narcan out into the community. Support groups and treatment centers transitioned online.
โYou can do group therapy on the phone or in video, but itโs still not true connection,โ said Ellen Stroud, who directs addiction and management operations for the stateโs opioid response. โAnd thatโs really a huge part of recovery.โ
Disturbing data began emerging.
In the first year of the pandemic, fatal overdoses in the state shot up by 40%. In 2021, deaths increased by an additional 22%.
The number of deaths increased from about 2,300 North Carolinians in 2019 to about 4,000 in 2021.
North Carolinians of color, particularly Black and Indigenous North Carolinians, were hit especially hard.
Stroud recalled one call from the Lumbee Tribe, during which the caller described an overdose crisis.
โThey said they had one person dying a day from an overdose,โ she said.
Cox said this steep rise in overdoses could also be partly attributed to fentanyl, which became widespread during the pandemic.
Fentanyl was involved in 77% of fatal overdoses in 2021, compared to 56% in 2018, according to state data.
Read the full article on the Raleigh News & Observer website.