Ridgewood NJ, According to provisional data released by the US CDC this week, more than 93,000 people died of a drug overdose in 2020, a nearly 30% increase over the number of overdose deaths in 2019. This estimate is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded and the largest percent increase since 1999. Public health agencies continue to fight the opioid epidemic, declared a public health emergency by the US government in 2017, but health departments were overwhelmed by the demands put on them during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, non-COVID-19 programs suffered.
More Americans died of drug overdoses last year alone than in the entire Vietnam war, according to Vox and the New York Times. More than ever died of guns or car crashes in a single year, even at the peak of those epidemics.
That’s according to a chilling Times investigation based on preliminary data collected from 2016. Overdose deaths rose 19 percent over the 52,404 recorded in 2015, to somewhere between 59,000 to 65,000.
The final numbers aren’t out yet, since drug deaths take a long time to certify. You see why timely data is crucial. So far, all evidence points to 2017 being even worse, but by the time the boxes are checked and the final reports are filed, thousands more will be dead.
Ridgewood EMTs training to fight rise in overdose deaths
JULY 18, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2014, 12:31 AM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER
Officials in New Jersey have reported a significant recent rise in deaths caused by overdoses on prescription painkillers and heroin.
Thanks to new state legislation, members of Ridgewood Emergency Services (EMS) are now better prepared to deal with any opiod overdoses they may encounter.
On Tuesday night, Dr. Marc Dreier, The Valley Hospital’s medical director of Emergency Services, trained Ridgewood EMS members in the new state-sanctioned administration of the drug naloxone, a temporary antidote for opioid overdoses.
“This is definitely a positive development,” Dreier said, “but prevention is the solution.”
According to EMS Chief Brian Pullman, Ridgewood deals with few overdoses on opioids, more commonly dealing with overdoses on other drugs. In his other position as a Ridgewood police sergeant, Pullman has encountered at least one heroin overdose that was “beyond the point of help.”
“We haven’t seen it as an ‘epidemic’ in Ridgewood, but we have seen cases,” he said.
Pullman and about 40 other emergency responders attended the one-hour training, which Dreier gave at 8 p.m. at the Douglas Place headquarters of Ridgewood EMS. Responders from other municipalities, including Mahwah and Waldwick, joined Ridgewood EMS members.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/training-to-fight-rise-in-overdose-deaths-1.1053679#sthash.SmrheQl9.dpuf
