CLEVELAND — The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner issued a public health alert after five suspected overdose deaths in one day.
“It’s tragic and it continues to be but it’s something it’s part of what’s been going on over the last eight years since fentanyl became more mainstream,” Cleveland Public Health Director Dr. David Margolius said.
One organization that helps people struggling with addiction started getting calls.
News 5 Investigators were all set up to interview the program director for Project White Butterfly, but she backed out at the last minute.
She emailed us apologizing saying more calls started coming in with requests for testing strips and naloxone after posting on social media about the five deaths in one day.
“Yeah, it’s awful and we lost I think 350 people to overdose deaths from fentanyl last year in the city of Cleveland. So it’s tragic,” Margolius said.
Fentanyl is the major driver of drug overdoses in Cuyahoga County, according to the medical examiner.
Two men and a woman from Cleveland, a man from Broadview Heights and a woman from Parma all died within 12 hours.
Their ages range from 32 to 70 years old.
“I think there are people struggling with addiction who are looking for the next stronger hit certainly but there are also people who are just looking for cocaine and unaware it’s laced with fentanyl and it will kill them,” Margolius said.
Margolius says fentanyl came on the scene in a big way in 2015.
“You can get it through the mail now unfortunately and it’s really hard to catch people and stop the supply coming in,” Margolius said.
The medical examiner says in the last five years, 70% to 75% who overdosed were found alone.
Dr. Margolius says those are the ones they worry about the most.
“It is hard to ask for help and so we want to normalize asking for help we want to normalize things like testing and having Narcan available and not using alone,” he said.
Project White Butterfly told News 5, it was contacted last week by someone requesting test strips and naloxone because they were going to a party where cocaine would be.
The program director got pictures of the used strips and a message that read in part: “Lost a few friends to cocaine, ironically… I’m not a very active user but I wanna be super safe.”
“This is called harm reduction. It's never using alone, always having Narcan available and always having the fentanyl test strips,” Margolius said.
Dr. Margolius says telling people to stop is not enough and is unfair to a struggling addict.
“For many of your audience who have loved ones dealing with this it is so hard it is so hard to ask for help it is so hard to find treatment,” he said.
News 5 asked him if he knew anyone personally.
“Yeah I know several people personally who are either struggling with addiction or who have passed away and I think we all do. And so it’s tragic,” Margolius said.
Project White Butterfly says people can get free harm reduction supplies like fentanyl test strips from vending machines in Cuyahoga County.
They include:
- The Centers/Circle Health at 12201 Euclid Ave
- The Centers Gordon Square at 5209 Detroit Avenue
- The Centers East at 4400 Euclid Avenue
- MetroHealth Main Campus at 2500 MetroHealth Drive
The following sites also provide a list of resources:
Lastly, the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County provides a 24-hour crisis hotline at 216-623-6888.
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