OLEAN — Cattaraugus County Health Department records show three county residents died from heroin overdoses in 2015.
That compares to no fatal heroin overdoses in 2014 and two heroin-related deaths in 2013, according to Dr. Kevin Watkins, Cattaraugus County public health director.
The numbers pale in comparison to the nearly 300 heroin deaths in neighboring Erie County, Watkins told members of the Cattaraugus County Board of Health last week at a meeting at Good Times of Olean.
In 11 days between Jan. 29 and Feb. 9, 23 people died in Erie County from what was a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, a narcotic painkiller 30 to 50 times stronger than heroin.
Watkins did not know how many users of heroin in this county were saved in 2015 by Narcan, a heroin antidote that can help resuscitate someone suffering an overdose.
Police and ambulance crews carried Narcan, and local health officials trained more than 300 residents with family members who are heroin addicts. About 300 first responders were trained in its use.
“Many first responders carry Narcan,” Watkins said.
In 2014, when the county did not record any heroin deaths, there are more suicides than usual, Watkins noted, suggesting some of them may have been heroin-related but not investigated as such.
There are only 37 beds in the county for rehabilitation from heroin addiction, Watkins said. Outpatient treatment is not as successful, he added.
“We need more inpatient beds,” Watkins said.
Watkins said the drug Vivitrol, which blocks opiate receptors, is proven to keep addicts from using heroin and other opiates, but at $300 a dose for a month, it is expensive.
Watkins said the rise in deaths due to opiates including heroin is partly due to a lack of resources — from more law enforcement to reduce trafficking to a shortage of beds for addicts’ rehabilitation.
“The drug is coming this way,” Watkins said.
He expects more overdoses and more deaths.
Dr. Gilbert Witte, the Cattaraugus County Health Department’s medical director, said, “If this drug comes down from Erie County, it’s going to kill people.”
Watkins said the common assumption that all heroin addicts started with opiates prescribed for pain.
When the state and federal governments began restricting the use of painkillers and they became very expensive, people turned to the relatively cheap heroin.
“I want to dispute this,” Watkins said of the notion physicians were overprescribing opiates. “We often try to limit opiate prescriptions. It is a deterrent for physicians.
“The horse is out of the barn, but we are going to have to deal with it as a community.”
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
