Alert: 7 Overdose Deaths, 6 Hours, 1 County

How do we tackle an unprecedented wave of overdose deaths in such a short span? We invite you to explore the urgent and distressing situation in Erie County, where seven lives were lost to overdoses within just six hours. Our guests, Stephen White, Director of the Erie County Department of Health Office of Harm Reduction, and Jennifer Garrigan, Project Coordinator for the Office of Harm Reduction, join us to shed light on this tragic event and discuss the critical factors at play.

• Request free naloxone & test strips: oasas.ny.gov
• ECDOH Office of Harm Reduction: (716) 858-7695
• Erie County Text for Narcan: 716-225-5473
• Never Use Alone: neverusealone.com and 877-696-1996
• Erie County Website: erie.gov/narcan

Transcript

Isabel Byon: 0:00

The New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports, or OASAS, provides this podcast as a public service. Thoughts and opinions expressed do not necessarily represent or reflect those of the agency or state. This is Addiction: The Next Step.

Jerry Gretzinger: 0:23

Welcome to this episode of Addiction, the Next Step, the podcast that's brought to you by the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports. I'm your host, jerry Gretzinger, and thanks for tuning us in for this episode, because it's an important one. We're going to talk about some real recent developments here, as it pertains to what we always talk about and, of course, that substance use and the issues surrounding it. To what we always talk about and, of course, that substance use and the issues surrounding it. And you may have heard, recently there were reports out of Erie County of some really eye-opening news that there were seven overdose deaths in the span of just six hours, and certainly this is something that catches our attention and should catch everyone's attention, because we want to know about this.

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:01

We want to share information because we don't ever want to have another story like this to talk about. So when there's a surge like this, we want to know about this. We want to share information because we don't ever want to have another story like this to talk about. So when there's a surge like this, we want to bring on people who can help us understand it and figure out what can be done about it and the folks who are going to join us from out there in Erie County. They're going to share some good information. We've got Stephan White, the director of the Erie County Department of Health Office of Harm Reduction. He's also joined by Jennifer Garrigan. She's the Office of Harm Reduction Project Coordinator. I want to thank you both for sitting down and chatting with us today.

Jennifer Garrigan: 1:30

Thank you for having us.

Jerry Gretzinger: 1:31

Yeah, definitely All right, so let me first get right into it. I think people hear about this and they go, wow, that sounds like a lot seven overdose deaths in six hours and certainly it is. When you both heard this information and heard what had happened, I mean, what was your immediate reaction? What do you do when you hear about something like this, right out of gate.

Stephen White: 1:50

So, if I can just uh kind of lead off talking about that. So my immediate reaction was a little bit of shock. Uh, given you know the number of overdose in in such a short period of time, um and and overwhelming concern, overwhelming concern, overwhelming concern for those family members who are impacted by these losses, our broader community and concern for what it means for our Office of Harm Reduction in terms of what does that mean for us in terms of other initiatives, responses and resources that we can provide to the community. So that was my initial thinking around once I heard this information.

Jerry Gretzinger: 2:34

I know we talk about seven and six hours. I know one of the statistics that we talk about a lot is that in New York State, on average someone dies of an overdose every 90 minutes, and that's across the state. So to hear seven and six hours in one county, in Erie County, that's definitely eye-opening. Let's if you can, give a little bit more information on what pieces tied all of this together, because these were different incidents all happening with the same six-hour span, but there were things that tied them together, correct same six-hour span, but there were things that tied them together, correct?

Stephen White: 3:08

Yes, and again, we don't have a lot of definitive information around these events. Very broadly, one of the things that we've become painfully aware of is that the contamination to the drug supply, and that there are cycles, that that tends to happen, right, and so when there are some different mix of contaminants that enter into the drug supply, you know, unfortunately sometimes it leads to, you know, a spike, if you will, in terms of overdoses and overdose fatalities, and we think that you know, certainly that's a contributing factor here, right.

Jerry Gretzinger: 3:48

So the thing that tied these together, am I correct that they all had some form of cocaine that was associated with what happened?

Stephen White: 3:55

Yes, in this case. Yeah, the data tells us that the cocaine was involved in each of these fatal events.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:05

And it wasn't all in one place. It's not like these were isolated to one household or one street. These were different communities within the county.

Stephen White: 4:15

Yeah, so I think Buffalo and T onawanda, where To nawanda is sort of it's actually a suburb of Buffalo, so certainly you know within this region. But yes, there is a bit of a. There was a bit of a geographic spread, if you will, and with two people at each of the locations, with people at each of the locations.

Jerry Gretzinger: 4:40

Yeah, and so you started alluding to the fact that you know cocaine could be present in each of these situations and we're still trying to figure out. Was there something else involved? You know something else mixed with this cocaine? And you know certainly we've been talking an awful lot about fentanyl. We don't know yet with certainty that there was any of that in this case, but certainly that's got to be a concern when you see this sort of a spike in such a short amount of time, right?

Jennifer Garrigan: 5:11

Yeah, and I'll say that seven overdoses in the six hours is unusual, but along Erie County our average is about one overdose death per day. So last year we lost 366 individuals to opioid-related overdoses alone. A lot of our messaging and information does surround the potential for contamination of substances. Cocaine cut with fentanyl we do see that that represents more than half of our fatalities found in the toxicology reports and, as referenced, our medical examiner is pretty busy. They do a full toxicology report and we do get that data, but there's a little bit of a lag.

Jennifer Garrigan: 5:47

So a lot of what we do as our office is more of a qualitative analysis. So we rely on our peer navigators to be on the streets pounding the pavement and talking to people who use drugs, talking to people that are in the community with lived or living experience and getting feedback. What are the experiences they're having when they are using substances? Is it different than you anticipate? Do you test your substances? Do you use test strips? Do you carry Narcan? We talk a lot about safety plans and carrying naloxone and all of those things and with the contamination of the drug supply we're seeing many different layers on that. There's other contaminants aside from fentanyl and cocaine that we're now having to find ourselves concerned with.

Jerry Gretzinger: 6:34

So obviously you're in the same business as we are, right, we want to get the word out about all of this. So again, I appreciate you being here to help us both get this information out. So, as we get to this point in the conversation, what are the steps that we take next? Obviously, awareness is one, but what other things have you put in place in Erie County to kind of let people know and to kind of prevent this from happening more?

Stephen White: 6:59

place in Erie County to kind of let people know and to kind of prevent this from happening more. So, yeah, raising awareness is, to your point, jerry, is very, very huge, hugely important, I think that you know. Also helping folks, you know, with lived and risk experience, to really utilize the resources that are available for them to minimize the risk of overdose, resources that are available for them to minimize the risk of overdose. So, you know, we provide, you know, testing strips and so we encourage folks who are, you know, have living experience, to utilize testing strips right, so they can get a sense of that you know, about the safety of their substances.

Stephen White: 7:41

We encourage folks to never use alone, right, you know, to, ideally, you know, if you're going to use to, you know, use with someone else, but also to tap into, perhaps, the never use alone hotline.

Stephen White: 7:49

So if they are in a space where they're by themselves, you know, and they have a mobile device, they can certainly, you know, they can call that 800 number to utilize that or the 866 number and also, you know, to carry the lock zone, so you know.

Stephen White: 8:05

So those are three things that we always, that we promote extensively and we really hope to, you know, get that message widely out in the community so that, as Jen mentioned about safety planning, so folks have that and then also for us, you know, because we have the Overdose Prevention Task Force, which has been realigned recently from the Opioid Task Force, you know.

Stephen White: 8:33

So tapping into our community partners right to promote messaging, to provide resources and interventions with individuals with lived and living experience and their families as well. One of the other things that we are able to do here in Erie County is we have a contingent of peers with the Department of Health, with our Office of Harm Reduction, that respond after overdose, and so we know that sometimes in that period after folks have experienced an overdose, that can be a really crucial time in terms of the direction that those individuals might go. So we have peers that can respond, help them with resources, help them if they're interested in treatment. They can help them with connections to that, but also just very broadly providing support, encouragement and recognition right of those individuals support and I'll start with our statewide hotline.

Jerry Gretzinger: 9:46

It's 877-8-HOPE-NY. That's our New York State HOPE line. It's always there 24-7, 877-8-HOPE-NY. And if one of you can give the other numbers that you mentioned as well that folks in Erie County could reach out to.

Jennifer Garrigan: 10:04

And then our Office of Harm Reduction can be reached at 716-858-7960.

Jerry Gretzinger: 10:13

Great, great. We want to make sure we get those resources out to people and we'll definitely make sure those get posted when this goes online. You know? One other question I just wanted to ask too. I know a lot of times you hear about a spike like this and sometimes the question goes to okay, did a batch of drugs come into the community that had something you know cut with it, and that's what we're seeing, and could this continue to happen if it's already out there in the community? Again, I know we don't have this detailed information yet. We're waiting on that, but that's gotta be something you're thinking about and looking at.

Stephen White: 10:49

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. You know, I had to you know, you know when we think about overdose

Stephen White: 10:58

you know, one of the things that we've been, you know, across the country, but certainly that we are very, very aware of, is that, you know, the drug supply gets contaminated with different contaminants.

Stephen White: 11:11

You know, from time to time, and it is instances like this where we see, you know, where we see a number of fatal overdoses. That raises, you know, raises, red flags for us in terms of you know, what's happening with the drug supply. Is there some new contaminant? Because you know they do, you know they do cycle around and you know, and then the impact of that so we are always, you know, very attuned to that and just in terms of you know, what our law enforcement partners are able to help us with periodically, with that is, you know, to sort of, source out what is in some of the drug supply. And you know, ideally there can be other methods that we could tap into, but right now we tend to lean into our law enforcement partners. And so, yes, to your broader question, we do recognize and understand that when we see spikes like this, that usually it is indicative that there are some changes happening to the drug supply.

Jerry Gretzinger: 12:20

And everything that we try to do here is such a team effort, right. So we're so appreciative of the work you're doing there. We're trying to do what we can do here to support your office and offices like it around the state. Jennifer, I want to give that number one more time. I know again we're concerned about the spike in Er1996.

Jennifer Garrigan: 12:40

And then our Office of Harm Reduction number is 716-858-7960. We also have a text for Narcan line which is 716-225-5473. And that we have for our community members in Erie County to text to receive Narcan and test strips free of charge, no questions asked, very low barrier.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:12

And we love the sound of that. We actually have a similar thing that we do statewide, and I'll give out that information. Just go to our website, oasasnygov. When you're on there, right on the homepage, there's a link. You go, you fill out your name, your address and, like you were saying, no questions asked, we'll send you test strips, we'll send you Narcan, naloxone, and it's all about harm reduction, wanting to keep people safe, and we applaud you both and your organization, your group, your office, for doing that work, because it is so critical, so important. Thank you both for sitting down and joining us, and when you find out more information after those toxicology reports, come back, please let us know and we'll update on social and then get the word out as well.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:51

Yes, absolutely Thank you for having us. We appreciate it.

Jennifer Garrigan: 13:54

Thank you so much.

Jerry Gretzinger: 13:55

Thank you both. Thanks once again for listening to Addiction: The Next Step the podcast brought to you by OASAS. I'm Jerry Gretzinger. Thanks for giving us a listen.