05-22-2014, 07:33 PM
"HEROIN KILLS" BILLBOARDS IN DAYTON, OHIO
![[Image: 622x350.jpg]](http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/30/12/50/6335020/3/622x350.jpg)
Officials in a southwest Ohio county hope that graphic images on two large digital billboards will push heroin addicts to get help.
County Commissioner Dan Foley said the problem demands the strong message after 225 people in the county of more than 500,000 people died from drug overdoses last year, according to the Dayton Daily News (http://bit.ly/Sic7sM).
"We're not naive. We don't believe that two billboards are going to all of a sudden turn this thing around," Foley said. "But we're hoping this will be a very visual, top-of-mind message to the community that there are people in the community who want to help them."
The Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board and the sheriff's office are each spending $2,600 to place the messages on two large digital billboards in the Dayton area.
Drug-overdose deaths hit a record 1,914 in Ohio in 2012. Officials statewide have struggled to get a handle on the heroin epidemic that for many addicts started with an addiction to prescription pain pills.
"The people who are dying are not junkies that are shooting up in some dark alley," Plummer said. "The people who are dying as we've all heard are mothers, our fathers, our sisters and brothers. They are people that many in the community know intimately."
http://www.centredaily.com/2014/05/21/41...rylink=cpy
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225 heroin overdose deaths in one county is unbelievable, to me. That's more people than were murdered in San Francisco and Oakland California combined last year.
There are less than 20 heroin deaths a year in San Francisco now -- but that's largely credited to naloxone, a drug that is administered by nasal spray or injection and used in emergency room to prevent OD deaths and also used in rehab programs for heroin addicts.
The emergency drug works to block the action of the opiate on the nerve and brain cells, counteracting the opiate's depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. This causes an immediate and unpleasant withdrawal and reverses a potentially deadly overdose. Without naloxone, there would have been around 285 deaths in San Francisco in 2012.
Of course, since heroin addiction and deaths is way down here, Oxycontin and other prescription pill addictions has increased substantially.
I wonder if the opposite is happening in Dayton. Big crack downs on scripts driving people back to heroin? Also wondering if Dayton emergency rooms are using naloxone and, if so, how high the death rate would be without it.
Naloxone ref: http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/S-F...401624.php
Officials in a southwest Ohio county hope that graphic images on two large digital billboards will push heroin addicts to get help.
County Commissioner Dan Foley said the problem demands the strong message after 225 people in the county of more than 500,000 people died from drug overdoses last year, according to the Dayton Daily News (http://bit.ly/Sic7sM).
"We're not naive. We don't believe that two billboards are going to all of a sudden turn this thing around," Foley said. "But we're hoping this will be a very visual, top-of-mind message to the community that there are people in the community who want to help them."
The Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board and the sheriff's office are each spending $2,600 to place the messages on two large digital billboards in the Dayton area.
Drug-overdose deaths hit a record 1,914 in Ohio in 2012. Officials statewide have struggled to get a handle on the heroin epidemic that for many addicts started with an addiction to prescription pain pills.
"The people who are dying are not junkies that are shooting up in some dark alley," Plummer said. "The people who are dying as we've all heard are mothers, our fathers, our sisters and brothers. They are people that many in the community know intimately."
http://www.centredaily.com/2014/05/21/41...rylink=cpy
-------------------------------------------------------------
225 heroin overdose deaths in one county is unbelievable, to me. That's more people than were murdered in San Francisco and Oakland California combined last year.
There are less than 20 heroin deaths a year in San Francisco now -- but that's largely credited to naloxone, a drug that is administered by nasal spray or injection and used in emergency room to prevent OD deaths and also used in rehab programs for heroin addicts.
The emergency drug works to block the action of the opiate on the nerve and brain cells, counteracting the opiate's depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system. This causes an immediate and unpleasant withdrawal and reverses a potentially deadly overdose. Without naloxone, there would have been around 285 deaths in San Francisco in 2012.
Of course, since heroin addiction and deaths is way down here, Oxycontin and other prescription pill addictions has increased substantially.
I wonder if the opposite is happening in Dayton. Big crack downs on scripts driving people back to heroin? Also wondering if Dayton emergency rooms are using naloxone and, if so, how high the death rate would be without it.
Naloxone ref: http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/S-F...401624.php