Last night Franklin County, Ohio was featured on a CNN broadcast covering the nation’s opiate epidemic. In a period of a week and a half, our county experienced a staggering 28 overdose deaths, including 10 in just one day. The problem is so bad that the Coroner’s Office has had to use a temporary morgue because they can’t keep up with the workload. This is an astounding statistic for the Central Ohio county that’s home to the Governor, the Statehouse and The Ohio State University, especially considering the funds these entities have allocated to combat the Opioid Crisis.

As a member of this community, there was a feeling of shame to hear CNN state “this county has now become known for opioid overdose deaths.” So how are nationwide rates of overdoes decreasing, but not in Franklin County? The answer is simply fentanyl. Columbus’ geographic location that has enabled businesses to succeed has been equally advantageous for the trafficking of illicit drugs. More and more we see fentanyl being laced into the supply, and it’s having a devastating effect on our citizens.

People with the disease called Substance Use Disorder (SUD) don’t know what they’re buying on the streets, and one recovering user related the influx of fentanyl to playing ‘Russian roulette.’ So how as a community can we prevent our fellow Buckeyes from overdosing from this deadly drug? We need to get them into medication-assisted treatment (MAT). This is why at Apportis, we have a developed a frontline capture tool, designed to get those suffering from SUD into treatment via telemedicine. In Central Ohio, let’s be apart of the solution and not just another statistic!

To see the full CNN broadcast please visit: https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/02/18/ohio-opioid-deaths-fentanyl-newday-pkg-vpx.cnn