Cobb opioids crisis: Most common overdose victim is white male in his 50s

The Cobb opioids crisis has been the subject of nationwide media attention as the county grapples with having the highest rate of overdose deaths in the state.

“There are a lot of people in District 2, especially in East Cobb, who don’t believe it,” said Commissioner Bob Ott, who devoted most of his town hall meeting on Monday to the subject.

Ott, who recently took part in a special White House conference on opioids, offered up some sobering numbers and speakers who attested to how Cobb is trying to address a situation that not only has spiraled rapidly, but suffers from common misconceptions.

One of them is identying a typical overdose victim. While some think it may be a young person, Dr. Christopher Gulledge, the Cobb County Medical Examiner, told told mostly middle-age and senior citizens at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center that the opioids plague is striking people from all walks of life and all age groups across the county.

Still, of the 163 drug overdose deaths in Cobb last year, he said 67 percent were men, and 89 percent were white (see page 30 of the 2017 CCME’s annual report).

Some in the audience gasped when Gulledge noted that 47 overdose victims, or a little more than a quarter, were white males ages 50-59. Furthermore, 26 were in the 40-49 age group, and 32 more between 30-39. Another 18 deaths were in the 18-29 range.

“It ain’t the teenagers,” said Gulledge, who was hired by Cobb in 2015 after working for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “It’s the parents.”

Topping the list were 62 deaths due to overdoses from fentanyl and other “designer” opioids. There were 37 deaths each from heroin and cocaine overdoses, 34 from methamphetamine, 33 from Alprazolam (trade name Xanax) and 30 from Oxycodone.

The opioid-related deaths in Cobb last year came to 128, and Gulledge said that 43 percent of those 163 deaths involved the use of heroin, fentanyl or both.

The opioid numbers have risen rapidly since the crisis began stoking concern in Georgia in 2015, and Gulledge said Cobb could be on pace to surpass last year’s total.

Gulledge said one reason for the spike in opioids deaths is that addicts of more familiar drugs may not be aware how much more potent they can become when blended with the likes of fentanyl.

“Long-term users have known their high,” he explained. “But they may no longer know their dose. They may or may not know if they’re lethal.”

Earlier this year, the GBI announced that Cobb led all counties in the state for the second year in a row in terms of the numbers of opioids cases it has investigated. A total of 79 cases were reported out of the county through May and 11 different types of fentanyl were tested at the state crime lab.

The opioids crisis originally grew out of the addictive use of commonly-prescribed painkillers. It has morphed far beyond that, spawning an illicit industry in which very potent and cheaply produced substances are cut into heroin, cocaine and other narcotics.

The high for addicts is higher, and so is the profit margin for manufacturers, Gulledge noted.

Cobb has been expanding the Medical Examiner’s Office with new positions and received a federal grant of nearly $900,000 to hire a judicial program manager and an investigator in the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.

The county this summer also joined a lawsuit seeking to recover damages from pharmaceutical manufacturers, similar to what was done by many states years ago against tobacco companies.

Ott said whatever money the county may receive would be used for recovery and treatment expenses.

There also will be a national medical drug disposal day next Saturday, Oct. 27, sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Cobb residents can drop off unused prescriptions at the following locations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.:

• Cobb Police Precinct 1 (2380 Cobb Parkway North);
• Smyrna Police Department (2646 Atlanta Road);
• Kennesaw Police Department (2782 Cobb Parkway North).

For more information, including locations for treatment, visit the Opioid Awareness in Cobb County resource page.

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