Middletown councilman pleased with fewer EMS runs for overdoses

A Middletown City Councilman said he is pleased with a 60 percent reduction in the number in EMS runs since he asked several weeks ago if the city could not respond to some drug overdose calls.

Referencing a report this week by the Journal-News, Councilman Dan Picard commented at Tuesday’s meeting that he was “very happy to report that those runs are down 60 percent since I initially made my proposal here in City Council and that has been consistent since I made that proposal.”

Picard made his suggestion at the June 20 council meeting after hearing a report from City Manager Doug Adkins about the latest heroin summit. He said the city needed to think outside the box and asked if there was a law that the city had to respond to overdose calls.

Picard suggested that the city create an administrative penalty when EMS is sent to an opioid overdose call that would trigger a penalty of community service equal to the amount of the costs of the EMS run. A second offense would double that community service penalty.

However, if the person who overdosed did not comply with the community service penalties imposed for the previous runs, then the city may opt not to respond to that person. He said he wanted to create fear in opioid users not to buy drugs and overdose in Middletown because EMS might not respond.

While Picard withdrew his proposal at the July 18 council meeting, it drew international attention and publicity to the city and about the opioid epidemic across the country.

According to the Division of Fire, there were 38 overdose runs during the week of June 25 through July 1. From July 2 through July 7, the number dropped to 26 runs. The number of runs dropped again to 12 for the period of July 8 through July 15; and during the week of July 16 to July 22, the number went up to 14.

MORE: Middletown councilman has ‘no regrets’ about overdose comments

While the numbers have dropped over that four-week period, the number of non-fatal runs, 629, and the total number of overdoses, 689, have already exceeded the total numbers for all of 2016. And, the number of fatal overdoses, 60, is approaching the total number of fatal overdoses, 74, that was recorded for 2016.

On one day — July 26 — there were zero overdose runs, according to Fire Chief Paul Lolli.

MORE: Overdose runs mentally, physically draining for first responders

“That hasn’t happened in a while,” Lolli said.

In addition to the huge amount of publicity, Middletown police and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office BURN unit have increased their presence with drug sweeps in the city.

In addition to more police enforcement, Adkins recently said Middletown has implemented a Public Safety Quick Response Team and Needle Exchange Program. He said the city’s quick response team has helped to get more than 140 addicts into treatment in its first year. In addition, the Middletown Municipal Court system has a drug court that helps addicts get medically supervised treatment.

“Whether or not those runs are down because of what I said said or any other reason, I believe it doesn’t matter but the point is that they are down 60 percent which is a wonderful thing for our city and hopefully they will continue,” Picard said.

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