The number deaths attributed to opioid overdoses in Cortland County declined in 2023, compared to the previous year — the second consecutive year of declines — and leaders of two local groups say efforts to provide emergency and long-term treatment of people addicted to opioids are helping bring those numbers down.
According to data from the state Health Department’s opioid quarterly report, the number of deaths from opioid overdose dropped to eight from 10, and the number of deaths specifically from heroin dropped to zero from two. The reductions in drug overdose deaths parallel national and statewide trends.
Regionally, the number of opioid overdose deaths remained stable in Tompkins County at 23; the number of opioid overdose deaths in Cayuga County dropped to 10 from 15.
The numbers in Cortland County are second second consecutive year of declines, and tot he lowest level since 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. The number of opioid overdose deaths in Cortland County doubled immediately after the pandemic began.
The number of deaths attributed to drug overdoses has been declining since 2021, said Matt Whitman, director of the Cortland-based Rural Health Institute. Non-fatal overdoses are also declining in the community, although Whitman did not immediately have figures available.
New data from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the number of overdose deaths from opioids dropped to 81,803 in 2023 from 84,181 in 2022, as did the number of deaths from synthetic opioids, mainly fantanyl.
Whitman and Dean O’Gorman, director of the Ithaca-based Healing Hearts Collaborative, attributed much of the decline in Cortland County to efforts to distribute naloxone kits, which can block the effects of an opioid overdose, and the availability of medication-assisted treatment, which provides medication to counter the effects of opioid use disorder.
“The big point for me, I think the data we’re tracking definitely points in the direction that harm-reduction strategies work in decreasing drug overdose fatalities and non-fatalities,” Whitman said. “The idea that harm reduction doesn’t work or is enabling drug use is not supported by the research or the local data we are tracking.”
The number of cases reported of emergency medical services personnel administering naloxone decreased to 37 in 2023 from 52 the year before; the number of doses administered by law enforcement decreased to 27 from 32, and the number treated through kits provided by Community Overdose Prevention programs increased to 58 from 46.
Several groups have been distributing naloxone in the community for recent years, making it more readily available and used in emergencies, which O’Gorman said is not necessarily reported to authorities.
Treatment programs for drug addiction have helped reduce the number of overdoses, Whitman and O’Gorman said. A Healthy Community study found that between April 2023 and March 2024, 90 more local people began receiving suboxone to treat opioid addiction.
In fact, the state report shows that the number of admissions to opioid treatment programs in Cortland County increased to 365 from 251. Cayuga County saw a similar increase, but admissions in Tompkins County and the state as a whole dropped.
An opioid-addiction treatment clinic planned in Cortland will be another important service, Whitman said, noting people now must travel to Syracuse and other communities for treatment of opioid use disorder and this will make access much easier.
O’Gorman said drug addiction needs to be treated as a health matter, not a criminal matter, O’Gorman said. Some people do not receive treatment because they fear being prosecuted.
The priority is getting people help to save their own lives and options to seek treatment, if they want it, O’Gorman said.
“We ask them what they need,” he said. “We don’t tell them what they should or shouldn’t be doing.”