East End News Project: Despite fewer deaths, opioid epidemic rages

BY Anisah Abdullah

Across Suffolk County, 396 opioid-related deaths occurred in 2017 — more than one per day for the year. This year, as of October 1, there have been 171 confirmed opioid deaths countywide.

While Suffolk County does not break down opioid deaths — or the uses of Narcan, the drug that can save the life of someone who is overdosing — by towns or hamlets, there are signs on eastern Long Island that the death rate in this epidemic is at least slowing.

People are still dying — from heroin, fentanyl and oxycodone — and families are still burying loved ones. If there is a bright spot in this ongoing horror, it is that there are fewer deaths.

From 2013 to 2017 there were 26 overdoses on Shelter Island, and seven Narcan saves, according to Police Chief Jim Read. When Chief Read and Detective Sergeant Jack Thilberg talk about Shelter Island’s opioid problem, it’s clear that this kind of policing in a place with a year-round population of 2,300 is intimate and personal.

Chief Read confirmed that the deaths of two Shelter Islanders in the first part of 2018 have had a terrible impact on the community, especially coming after years in which there was one or none.

In Southold Town last year, according to police records, there were 12 non-fatal opioid overdoses and no deaths. To date this year, there have been 20 non-fatal overdoses in the town and one opioid-related death. Riverhead statistics were not immediately available.

Southold Police Chief Martin Flatley said that, as a matter of policy, his department sends a detective to investigate each overdose — a practice also followed in Southampton Town, where opioid-related overdose deaths have dropped sharply.

“Our department sends a detective to investigate the circumstances surrounding each of these overdoses, and our one death of a 20-year-old female to an overdose is still very much an active case,” Chief Flatley said in an email.

“As much as it is important for the public to know that they will not be arrested if they report an overdose to a police department in an effort to help the victim,” the chief wrote, “it is equally important for our detectives to gather as much evidence and intelligence from these overdose scenes to attempt to prevent subsequent overdoses attributed to the same source. It is very traumatic for our officers to respond to an overdose and administer Narcan, but it does enable our department to take the first steps in treating the disease of opioid abuse by saving a life and referring victims to drug counseling and treatment.”

First responders in Southold have administered Narcan to people who have overdosed in their homes, cars and a variety of other places, including a public park. Some first responders have administered Narcan multiple times to the same person. Each time that person’s life was saved, only to repeat the cycle at a later date, in a twist on the old adage that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

The first time the anti-overdose medication Narcan was used via nasal inhaler  in Suffolk County  to bring someone back from the brink of death was on  Shelter Island in 2014, as part of a pilot program run by New York State.

Four other counties in the state participated in the program to judge the effectiveness of inter-nasal Narcan, which has proved to be “remarkably successful,” said Robert Delagi, who ran the pilot program for the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.

Across Suffolk County, a record 744 “Narcan reversals,” as they are called, took place in 2017. As of October 1 of this year, there have been 388, according to county records. County records on Narcan usage go back to 2010, when 279 doses were administered.

Southampton Town has taken strong steps in meeting the epidemic, including forming a task force to study the issue and develop solutions. So far, the opioid epidemic has taken significantly fewer lives on the South Fork this year than last — a statistic that may be a direct result, at least in part, of the community mobilizing to combat the crisis.

In the Town of Southampton, according to Police Chief Steven Skrynecki, the number of opioid-related deaths dropped from 19 in 2017 to just six this year, as of November 8. By that date last year, in comparison, the town had already recorded 17 deaths.

Last year’s total number was “almost four times the number from the year before,” according to a Southampton Town Opioid Addiction Task Force press release from June.

The Town of East Hampton had three opioid-related deaths this year, as of November 8, matching the number from last year, according to the East Hampton Town Police Department.

Despite the hopeful trend, opioid addiction is still a major problem on the East End, one that affects countless families.

“It’s consistent and it’s rampant. To call it an epidemic is mild. It’s a crisis,” said Diane Newman, director of admissions at The Dunes East Hampton rehabilitation center.

Various local organizations have responded to the epidemic in an effort to bring the community together to find ways to help those in need and prevent further tragedies.

Some organizations, including Southampton’s task force, HUGS Inc. and SAFE in Sag Harbor, have helped to inspire those affected to speak out against opioid addiction — a topic people tended to keep quiet about in the past — and encourage people suffering from addiction to seek help, in addition to offering other drug and alcohol prevention outreach programs.

Southampton’s Opioid Addiction Task Force was formed in October 2017 to help bring the crisis to light. It disbanded in July, having completed its work by presenting a draft report to the Town Board.

In the last year, Southampton Town police strengthened their efforts to dig deeper into the causes of overdoses and the sources of the drugs, possibly providing at least one reason for the lower death rate there.

Southampton Police Captain Larry Schurek noted that officers have been carrying Narcan for two to three years now, and while it has saved numerous lives, more needs to be done to combat addiction before it gets to the point of an overdose.

“Narcan was saving a lot, but we were getting repeat overdoses,” Captain Schurek said. “People are addicted to the drug, and a lot of the time that outweighs the [fear of] death.”

Ken Rothwell, director of four funeral homes serving communities from Wading River to Southampton, said he’s noticed a drop in the rate of overdose deaths.

“As of one year ago, we were at our highest level of handling fatalities,” he said. “We were doing approximately two funerals a month, so 24 deaths a year, strictly due to overdoses.”

That equates to about 17 percent of the total number of funerals his four facilities conducted last year.

Mr. Rothwell added that those deaths involved people representing every generation and socioeconomic background. “We’re burying kids, we’re burying adults, and we’re burying seniors,” he said.

WITH STEVE WICK
As part of the East End News Project, reporting on opioids was contributed by Stony Brook University interns Dorothy Mai, Elizabeth Pulver, Michael Adams, Cosete Nunez and Margaret Osborne.