Scioto County Drug Death Figures
Last 12 Years (2003-2014)
2003 -- 12 direct drug deaths and 16 drug-related deaths
2004 -- 15 direct drug deaths and 20 drug-related deaths
2005 -- 20 direct drug deaths and 16 drug-related deaths
2006 -- 21 direct drug deaths and 04 drug-related deaths
2007 -- 21 direct drug deaths and 06 drug-related deaths
2008 -- 21 direct drug deaths and 23 drug-related deaths
2009 -- 22 direct drug deaths and 12 drug-related deaths
2010 -- 23 direct drug deaths and 20 drug-related deaths
2011 -- 22 direct drug deaths and 10 drug-related deaths
2012 -- 15 direct drug deaths and 13 drug-related deaths
2013 -- 18 direct drug deaths and 13 drug-related deaths
2014 -- 19 direct drug deaths and 14 drug-related deaths
Total Direct Drug Deaths = 229
Total Additional Drug-Related Deaths = 167
Grand Total For Drug Deaths = 396
Scioto County Death Figures
For Five American Wars (1917-1992)
(1917-1918) World War I -- Scioto County Deaths: 84
(1941-1946) World War II -- Scioto County Deaths: 290
(1950-1953) Korean War -- Scioto County Deaths: 68
(1964-1973) Vietnam -- Scioto County Deaths: 31
(1992) Desert Storm -- Scioto County Deaths: 2
Total Years of War = 23
Total Scioto County Deaths = 475
With drug deaths now averaging 33 a year,
in less than three years (counting 2015),
Scioto County will have lost more people to drugs than people killed in five foreign wars
(World War I through Desert Storm).
Thank God that Project DAWN (Deaths Avoided with Naloxone) has been credited with saving 38 lives in Scioto County. Project Dawn, was recently expanded to 21 Ohio counties, thanks to a partnership with the ADAMHS Board of Scioto, Adams and Lawrence Counties.
The newest killer substance is heroin. “The prescription pain pill addiction problem has evolved into a heroin problem. We’ve been showing a dramatic increase in the number of heroin related deaths, over the last three years,” Lisa Roberts, Portsmouth public health nurse said.
She said heroin related deaths across the nation have tripled over the last three years.
Roberts acknowledged there have been significant strides in Scioto County to combat these issues. She pointed to the success of Project Dawn (Deaths Avoided with Naloxone). Project DAWN originated in the Portsmouth City Health Department in 2013. Scioto County was chosen by the Ohio Department of Health to be Ohio’s first Community-Based Naloxone Overdose Reversal Project.
If you doubt that a health epidemic has devastated Scioto County in the last twelve years, please review the statistics and consider the analogy to county war dead totals. Yes, we are in the middle of a Drug War that threatens our existence. Now is the time to take action and help stop this self-inflicted insanity.
These statistics do not reflect the horrible toll of the living who suffer with addiction -- the walking wounded who have lost the ability to function normally in our county. They have become dependents. All of us -- like it or not -- have been adversely affected by the addiction epidemic -- financially, emotionally, and physically.
Neither do the stats show the enormous collateral damage to the families and to the friends of the deceased. When we consider all of the pain, grief, and injury caused by the casualties of the Drug War, we find hundreds and hundreds of innocent people here who have suffered permanent scars that have detrimental effects on their lives every day. Again, make no mistake: we are in a war zone.
We analyze reasons for substance abuse and plan programs that stunt its continued ill effects; however, until each of us demands a stop to abuse and takes steps to cut consumption of drugs like heroin, we will see the killing fields of the Drug War swell. The enemy is apparent. Combat awaits.
IN FLANDERS FIELDS POEM
The World’s Most Famous WAR MEMORIAL POEMBy Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium
No comments:
Post a Comment