CLEVELAND — As one pandemic winds down, the ongoing opioid epidemic continues to shred families and communities throughout Northeast Ohio. However, with millions of dollars expected to fill the coffers of city and county governments by way of a litany of different legal settlements, non-profit leaders hope the combined effort will turn the tide.
According to the most recent data from Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office, it is projected that 650 people will die of drug overdoses in 2022, based on data through Sept. 12th.
If proven accurate, the total would fall just shy of the following numbers:
- 675 projected overdose deaths in 2021
- 553 overdose deaths in 2020
- 582 overdose deaths in 2019
- 550 overdose deaths in 2018
Those figures still fall well short of the 727 overdose deaths reported in 2017, the highest total on record.
Earlier this week, the Cleveland City Council’s Health, Human Services and the Arts committee passed legislation allowing the city to accept its portion of a legal settlement reached with Johnson and Johnson and other Ohio counties. Cleveland’s portion of the settlement, which amounts to just over $2.8 million, will be doled out over 18 years, amounting to one installment of $155,619.43 every year. City officials said the settlement money will be broadly used for opioid abuse prevention and treatment as well as mental health and addiction services.
The Johnson and Johnson settlement is just one of the multiple legal settlements stemming from a bevy of lawsuits filed against pharmacies, distributors and drug makers in connection with the opioid epidemic. That funding intends to help buttress the ongoing work being done by area non-profits, including Project White Butterfly.
“We do a lot of things,” said founder Sara Szelagowski. “We do street outreach, we do support. We encourage community members to get involved in supporting individuals who need to find their way to treatment and services like that.”
Szelagowski, who will mark 7 years of sobriety next month, founded Project White Butterflyin 2019. Its name pays homage to her late brother-in-law, who died of a drug overdose.
In addition to helping direct those suffering from addiction toward resources and treatment, the registered non-profit collects and distributes hand-written letters of encouragement. The letters, which are oftentimes written by those in recovery, include phone numbers to treatment resources.
“When people find this, it can kind of be that 'It’s meant to be' feeling. This was meant for me,’” Szelagowski said. “It can sometimes be that catalyst that people need to pick up the phone and reach out for help. If we are able to touch people in the community with substance abuse disorder and hit them in their emotions and get them where it’s important, there’s a likelihood that it will do something.”
As part of her work through Project White Butterfly, Szelagowski’s key goal is to “meet people where they are” in order to build trust with those suffering from substance abuse. Eventually, Szelagowski said those individuals will seek treatment when they are ready. Even then, recovery isn’t easy.
“Fentanyl is in everything in Cuyahoga County as we’ve known for a long time now. It is reaching younger and younger kids with pressed pills and things like that,” Szelagowski said. “The toxicity level of the drugs in Cuyahoga County makes detox so difficult. But Cuyahoga has done a great job of expanding the number of detox beds that we have.”
Moving forward, Szelagowski said more “on the ground” education and outreach is needed to help supplement investments made in treatment centers and other resources. After the COVID-19 pandemic brought massive disruptions in resources and outreach, the need is greater than ever, she said.
“The numbers jumped during COVID and our attention was elsewhere, right? For something where a lot of people feel like there’s not enough attention given, it took so much more focus off and cut people off from resources,” Szelagowski said. “Now that Cuyahoga has the resources, I think there needs to be a shift to reaching the people in the street who are actively using, who need those resources we’ve created and now have. We need to educate them about what’s out there.”
