Orange County NY opioid deaths finally decrease
Fatal overdoses involving opioids dropped by 18 percent in Orange County last year, reversing a grim trend in which the number of deaths had climbed steadily each of the previous five years.
The 97 opioid-related deaths recorded by the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office for 2019 show the continued toll of a devastating drug epidemic, but a welcome decrease from the 118 fatalities in 2018 at its peak. Last year’s total also fell slightly below the 99 deaths in 2017, though it remained almost double the 50 deaths reported in 2013.
Darcie Miller, commissioner of Orange County’s social services and mental health departments, said Monday that the decrease in fatalities in 2019 was significant and an encouraging sign, reflecting seven years of dedicated work to combat the crisis by stakeholders in various fields.
A key factor, she said, has been expanded access to addiction treatment, along with a reduction in the stigma associated with it that discourages addicts from seeking help. She noted, for example, that patients taken to Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh after an overdose are offered medication-assisted treatment while they are still in the hospital.
**Still too many obits. in the Hudson Valley. Dealers selling fentanyl uncut. The DA's have been aggressive now prosecuting the dealers once they track them down for homicide.
https://www.recordonline.com/news/20200309/orange-county-opioid-deaths-finally-decrease