Bodies Clog Ohio Morgue, Create Need For “Death Trailer”
The trailer has been in other parts of Ohio, such as the counties of Ashtabula and Cuyahoga (home to Cleveland) when their morgues have become filled with bodies. Last summer, the medical examiner in Summit County (where Akron is) requested the trailer as well.
The coroner in Montgomery County has asked local funeral home directors in Dayton to help with deal with similar morgue overflow situations.
Stark Country investigator Rick Walters has discussed the growing problem in his jurisdiction.
We’re up 20 percent this year. Our suicide rate is also up. The drug problem is costing us a significant amount of money. We’re spending five digits every month on toxicology tests. The new thing this month is mixing meth with carfentanil.”
Carfentanil is an animal tranquilizer that it alleged to be 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, which drug dealers use to mix with heroin. The tranquilizer is generally used on larger animals such as elephants.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2015, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Rhode Island and New Hampshire had the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the nation.
In Ohio alone, the most recent federal data shows that the drug overdose rate was 29,9 per 100,000 people.
Authorities in Pennsylvania report that drug dealers in Wilkes-Barre are cutting heroin with fentanyl in order to increase profits. Prices for heroin have been kept lower in order to get more users addicted.
Between 2002 and 2013, the number of heroin-involved deaths nearly quadrupled nationwide according to federal health officials.
A key component of President Trump’s push for a wall along the southern border with Mexico is the dire need to stem the flow of heroin and other opioids into the United States by Mexican drug cartels.
But what will Trump’s drug policy look like? At the moment it is unclear how Trump will handle the ‘drug war’. He had made the case for building a wall on the Mexican border partly based on the need to cut lines for the drug cartel. But what his drug policy would look like inside our borders remains unclear.
Drug policy and advocacy groups, alarmed by a New York Times report that the Office of Management and Budget has placed the White House’s Office of National Drug Control and Policy (ONDCP) on the chopping block, have banded together in the midst of a national opioid crisis to author a letter forcefully opposing the move.
The letter obtained by CBS News, titled “Retain the Office of National Drug Control Policy,” was written by over 70 medical and drug policy organizations, such as Addiction Policy Forum, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Smart Approaches to Marijuana and the Major County Sheriffs of America.
“At a time when drugs now kill more people than firearms or car crashes, it is more important than ever for ONDCP to remain a strong voice in the White House and a visible presence nationally,” reads the letter addressed to the newly minted director of OMB, former South Carolina Congressman Mick Mulvaney.
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Price increases for drug used to treat heroin overdoses
The National Fraternal Order of Police also released a letter to the President this week, urging the administration to “reject any notion or proposal to eliminate the ONDCP and in fact, urge you to ensure that the budget prioritizes its efforts and those of State and local law enforcement to combat the use and sale of illegal narcotics.”
The report of the OMB’s plans to cut the ONDCP does not necessarily align with the White House’s plans, however: Sources tell CBS News that former New Hampshire Congressman Frank Guinta is under consideration to head the office in the role of Drug Czar — the colloquial title for the head of ONDCP — and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is in talks with the White House to chair a specialized task force.
Drug policy experts and advocates have faith that President Trump, who campaigned heavily – but without too many specifics — on a commitment to drug reform, won’t abandon the ONDCP, especially as the administration recovers from a tumultuous initiation to Washington, D.C.
“In the middle of the biggest opioid epidemic and with an increase in overdose deaths, I cannot imagine they would be looking for less oversight,” Jessica Nickel, the Executive Director of the Addiction Policy Forum told CBS News.
What I don’t understand is why they can’t track down the SOURCE of the carfentanil itself…. For it to be profitable to drug dealers to use as a “cut” for heroin, then surely they are getting it in large quantities… So, WHERE is is coming from?? It’s an “elephant tranquilizer” for Christ’s sake, so where is it coming from?? I doubt that my local veterinarian has it in five gallon buckets at his office, so WHO does have it??? It seems to me that if you follow THAT trail, then you’ll find the guilty party..
It’s easy for people to say, “if they know they may die, then WHY do they do it”?? But if they’ve never been addicted, then they cant possibly know the answer, because it’s the same as why addicts do anything that they do… Opioid addiction is an “all consuming” situation, and all the addicted can even think about is where, when, and how they’ll get their next fix.. It’s a miserable existence and I thank God everyday that he brought me out of that life 13 years ago….and I pray for all the addicts now, because I’d surely hate to be in their shoes in these times where the feds have clamped down so hard on pain killers that the addicts have no other choice but to “chance” death Everytime they do a shot, snort, or smoke….
Ohio’s drug problem is just that their problem. Not the federal government’s problem. It’s really a novel solution to the drug problem in america. Give the addicts drugs that will kill them first time they use it. No more drug addicts no more drug problem.
Ok if know one comes to claim the body of a dead person what happen to the 30 day or be burn to ashes
What I don’t understand is why they can’t track down the SOURCE of the carfentanil itself…. For it to be profitable to drug dealers to use as a “cut” for heroin, then surely they are getting it in large quantities… So, WHERE is is coming from?? It’s an “elephant tranquilizer” for Christ’s sake, so where is it coming from?? I doubt that my local veterinarian has it in five gallon buckets at his office, so WHO does have it??? It seems to me that if you follow THAT trail, then you’ll find the guilty party..
It’s easy for people to say, “if they know they may die, then WHY do they do it”?? But if they’ve never been addicted, then they cant possibly know the answer, because it’s the same as why addicts do anything that they do… Opioid addiction is an “all consuming” situation, and all the addicted can even think about is where, when, and how they’ll get their next fix.. It’s a miserable existence and I thank God everyday that he brought me out of that life 13 years ago….and I pray for all the addicts now, because I’d surely hate to be in their shoes in these times where the feds have clamped down so hard on pain killers that the addicts have no other choice but to “chance” death Everytime they do a shot, snort, or smoke….
that is total crazy
Ohio’s drug problem is just that their problem. Not the federal government’s problem. It’s really a novel solution to the drug problem in america. Give the addicts drugs that will kill them first time they use it. No more drug addicts no more drug problem.