NEWS

Delaware County saw 200+ ODs in first quarter

Douglas Walker
dwalker@muncie.gannett.com

MUNCIE, Ind. – For the first quarter of 2017, the number of local drug overdoses, many stemming from heroin, were... off the charts.

Jason Rogers, Delaware County’s executive director of emergency medical services and emergency management, said this week that between Jan. 1 and March 31, emergency medical personnel responded to 203 overdose calls.

Those calls, many stemming from abuse of heroin and related substances, represented nearly five percent of the 4,162 EMS calls during the three-month period. (The service responded to 729 overdose-related calls in 2016.)

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“It’s given us an increase in what I consider critical patients,” Rogers said of the spike in heroin cases. “We only have so many resources. It’s becoming very problematic.”

Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn’s office recorded 25 fatal overdoses – many, but not all, involving heroin or related substances – through March 31.

Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkle estimated 150 first-quarter heroin overdoses, and at least 10 of the heroin-related deaths, had taken place in Muncie.

The jarring frequency of heroin ODs has forced Winkle to make changes in the operation of his department.

“Last week we decided we couldn’t wait any longer,” the police chief said, calling the number of related deaths “unacceptable.”

In recent weeks, officers had been contacting survivors of recent overdoses, offering to put them in touch with treatment programs.

But as the number of ODs and deaths continue to rise, steps have been taken to place a greater emphasis on making heroin-related arrests.

“Now we’re on the enforcement side of it,” Winkle said. "We’ve just had to speed up what we were hoping to do down the road. I can’t sit and wait. We had to do some juggling and we’re short in some areas. And it’s going to cost us some overtime money.”

Winkle appeared before city council members this week to make it known the Muncie Police Department – in the wake of three February homicides, and the heroin epidemic – had already spent nearly half of its 2017 overtime budget.

“The grief of a family in the loss of a loved one doesn’t matter if it’s a homicide, an overdose, a car accident,” the police chief said. “I can’t sit across the table from these people (after) these overdoses, who are losing children, and go, ‘We’re not going to be able to work this because we don’t have the money or the manpower.’

“That’s not an acceptable answer.”

Winkle said MPD officers in recent days had made 10 heroin-related arrests, including those of six accused dealers.

Some of those arrested have had Muncie addresses, but are from out-of-state cities like Dayton or Detroit, he said.

“They’re coming in here,” he said. “They’re settling in, they’re selling their dope and they’re leaving, re-upping and then coming back. ... They’re simply here to deal heroin.”

Delaware County Prosecutor Jeffrey Arnold said his staff continues to be overwhelmed by the growing number of heroin-related cases.

“It’s a hard issue to deal with because you’re talking about people who need help versus the criminal system,” he said.

While community leaders, including those in law enforcement, want to find help and treatment for those addicted to illegal substances, Arnold said, “it’s just too deadly a situation” to not pursue prosecution against those supplying the drugs.

Along with the manpower used to treat overdose victims, the county’s emergency medical service is using more medication and equipment in working to save those patients’ lives, Rogers noted.

“It’s a compounding effect,” he said. “And it’s costing more money.”

A total of 200 doses of Narcan – a medication used to counteract heroin ODs – were administered during the first quarter of 2017.

(By comparison, 453 doses of Narcan were administered in 2016, up from 258 in 2015.)

Not all overdose patients receive Narcan, Rogers said, but many overdose patients are given multiple doses.

Using data reflecting when overdose calls are most frequent, Rogers has made scheduling adjustments in a bid to have an extra ambulance available during those hours.

“We’re doing everything we can to keep those services available (to all county residents),” he said.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. Follow him on Twitter: @DouglasWalkerSP.

Muncie Police Chief Joe Winkles estimates Muncie saw about 150 heroin overdoses in the first three months of 2017.