Jun 21, 2017 2 min read

Given the cyclone-level force of the opioid epidemic and its unyielding durability, the statistics that quantify the toll of heroin and other painkillers in our communities can leave you a bit numb.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heroin-related overdoses have more than quadrupled since the start of this decade. In just the span that covers 2014 to 2015, heroin overdose deaths increased by more than 20 percent. Nearly 13,000 people died of heroin overdoses nationwide in 2015.

The opioid epidemic has hardly abated over the last two years, so expect those numbers to be even more grim in the months ahead. On Tuesday, new figures released by the federal government showed that there were 1.2 million opioid-related visits to hospital emergency rooms or longer inpatient stays in 2014. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported that emergency room stops increased by 99 percent from 2005, and a 64 percent increase in inpatient treatment from the same year.

The study also found that two of our neighbors, West Virginia and Maryland, were among the states with the highest rates of hospital admissions for opioid overdoses three years ago.

A story that appeared in the Observer-Reporter Sunday highlighted the strain that the opioid epidemic is placing on local agencies. The number of children entering foster care because their parents or guardians have been swept up in the opioid epidemic is increasing. Kimberly Rogers of Washington County Children and Youth Services told us that of 316 children who were placed in foster care last year, 64 percent were the result of parental substance abuse. In 2017, 70 percent of children they have placed in foster care are the result of their parents or guardians abusing drugs.

This is happening against a backdrop of decreasing budgets. The agency had a $29 million budget in 2016-17, but that is expected to be notched down to $26 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year.

“We’re keeping at it,” Rogers said. “I’ll find a way. We’re going to do at the end of the day what we believe is right for families and children…”

The new government data and the issues Washington County CYS is facing underscore a simple fact: Even if you or no one you know has become addicted to opioids, you are still affected by this crisis.