LOWELL — New data on the city’s opioid epidemic paint an even darker picture of how severe the crisis has become.
Lowell has recorded 42 fatal opioid overdoses this year — about one every week — including three just this past weekend, Police Superintendent William Taylor told the City Council’s substance-abuse subcommittee Tuesday.
The opioid overdose rate has continued to rise, even as city and area public safety officials have called for more action to tackle the crisis. The city had 2.1 opioid overdoses a day last month, the highest rate since more detailed reporting began earlier this year, according to a report issued to the subcommittee.
September marked the third straight month with an increase in the overdose rate.
“We seem to be getting nowhere,” said Corey Belanger, the councilor who chairs the subcommittee. “It’s just disheartening to see the progress is not being made.”
Those 69 overdoses in September of heroin, OxyContin and other similar drugs known as opioids accounted for more than half of all drug overdoses in Lowell, among incidents tracked by Trinity EMS, the city’s ambulance service provider.
Overall overdoses have also risen. There were 71 overdoses of all drugs in April, and 119 in September, which was also a high mark in the six months in which the data has been more closely tracked.
The data does not specify whether any of the overdoses were fatal.
Opioids have been said to become both cheaper and more potent. They have been found locally to be laced with fentanyl, a far stronger pain reliever. Taylor said Tuesday that a dose of heroin that now costs about $6 used to cost about $45 in the 1980s when he was a member of the Police Department’s drug unit.
Elected officials and public-safety officials have called for further action on several fronts, including stricter prescription monitoring, providing more education in schools about the dangers of opioids, and creating more treatment beds for addicts. A task force of area health and public-safety officials meets monthly, and the City Council substance-abuse subcommittee has discussed the topic more frequently in the past year.
If there’s one encouraging sign from the report presented Tuesday, it is that the overdose-reversing drug Narcan has been used more often. It was used in 38 of the 69 overdoses last month, according to the Trinity EMS report.
All Lowell school nurses have been trained to use Narcan and have it available to use, said Jo-Ann Keegan, the city’s interim health director.
But even Narcan may only temporarily fix an addiction. John Chemaly, the co-owner and president of Trinity EMS, said responders regularly come across the same person several times.
“Unfortunately, after two or three hours, we’re sometimes back picking the same person up,” he said.
The Trinity EMS report also sheds light on other details. Men are more likely to overdose than women, Wednesdays and Saturdays have the highest overdose rates, and the Acre and downtown are the neighborhoods with the most overdoses.
Of the 69 overdoses in September, the victim was from Lowell in at least 30 cases. Nine different hometowns were listed on overdose reports, while in 23 cases, the hometown was not specified.
Earlier reports have also shown how much opioid overdoses have risen in the past several years. From 2012 to 2014, the number of opioid overdoses in Lowell more than doubled, rising from 222 to 471.
Follow Grant Welker on Twitter and Tout @SunGrantWelker.
