By Jon Baker
The Times-Reporter
NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio — The Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s Office has received an $83,500 grant from the state of Ohio to start a Tuscarawas County Quick Response Team to help drug overdose survivors find the path to addiction recovery.
Sheriff Orvis Campbell said the quick response team is a collaborative effort of his department and other agencies in the county, including the New Philadelphia Fire Department, Personal and Family Counseling Services and the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Tuscarawas and Carroll Counties.
“As an overdose occurs, we will respond to the individual to get the person to agree to go into treatment,” Campbell said. “Law enforcement, a paramedic or counselor or a peer who has received training will go and intervene and try to get them into treatment after an overdose. It might even happen the same day as the overdose.”
He added, “We want to try and get ahead of this.”
The new grant program is administered by the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
“Addiction destroys lives and wrecks families, which is why this investment to tackle the problem here in Tuscarawas County is so vitally important,” said state Sen. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, in announcing the grant. “For some, intervention by law enforcement and drug treatment professionals will mean the difference between death and recovery.”
Campbell said law enforcement will not charge someone who has overdosed on opioids. Instead, they will confiscate the drugs, make the person who overdosed safe and get that person into treatment.
“We want to get them out of this vicious circle of overdosing,” the sheriff said.
Addiction to opioids is much stronger than addiction to cocaine or marijuana, he said. “People are legally addicted under one use. You don’t even get one night of bad judgment.”
Addicts have to continually take opioids such as heroin to avoid getting physically ill. “Those individuals have had a hard time breaking the cycle because they’re constantly ill without heroin,” Campbell said.
Addicts need to get into detox, but there is no place locally for them except the Tuscarawas County Jail, he said. “We’re hoping to get them into a medical setting for medically guided detox.”
Sending people out of the county for detox can be tough, because facilities in other counties have a waiting list for beds. The sheriff’s office is working with the ADAMHS Board to reserve some beds for Tuscarawas County residents, Campbell said.
“Once you see the addiction, you know it’s very real,” he noted.
Copyright 2017 The Times-Reporter