Three strikes and you’re out– is what an Ohio city councilman is proposing in terms of dealing with his town’s overdose epidemic.
The Middletown City Council member, Dan Picard, is proposing that in order to deal with the town’s epidemic and to double down on the amount of money being spent on Narcan, paramedics should limit the number of times they respond to an overdose per person.
How would this work?– On their first and second overdose, paramedics would come out to help that person, then they would be summoned to court where they would be found guilty of overdose. After that, they would be fined and given community service in order to repay the fine, which would be equal to the amount it cost the paramedics to save them. On the second overdose, it would be double. Now if that individual happens to overdose a third time, paramedics would not go out to save that person.
“The purpose of this is to scare people, I want people to be scared of coming to Middletown and overdosing,” Picard said. “I want the drug users out there to know that if you come to Middletown and you overdose, there’s a possibility that we’re not going to come.”
Though the proposal is suggesting that the city not send emergency personnel in the case of someone’s third overdose, his new rule would not prevent emergency personnel from catering to someone who’s overdosing if the workers have already been dispatched he said, in that scenario, they would they be obligated to treat the patient.
The proposal, however, is controversial and immediately sparked a response. One advocacy group called Truth Pharm, who advocates for better drug treatment policies and works to bring awareness to substance disorders, wrote an open letter directly criticizing the proposal– in which they described it as “disgusting and sadistic.”
“In short, our goal is to save lives so, needless to say, we were more than appalled by your recent proposition to refuse medical treatment to overdose patients. It pains and infuriates us to see how easily you have turned human lives into dollar signs and an impact on your budget,” the letter read.
“To suggest that you withhold emergency medical response to overdose patients is manslaughter at best and premeditated murder at worse. You won’t be “teaching them a lesson” or “making them afraid to overdose in Middletown.” You will be directly contributing to the exponential increase of deaths in your community. ”
As the United States is in the midst of a major opioid epidemic, almost all states are dealing with major overdose deaths, and Ohio just so happens to be one of several states experiencing significant rates of drug overdose deaths. Between 2014-2015 the state saw a significant 21.5 percent increase in overdose related deaths, and in 2016 emergency personnel responded to 535 opiate overdoses of which 77 resulted in death according to the town’s 2016 Division of Fire report. In terms of cost, the city has spent over $1.2 million responding to overdose calls and is expected to spend more than $2 million this year alone, according to Picard and the Middletown city manager, CNN reported. With this new proposal, he is hoping to cut back on the costs that the town spends on saving overdose victims.
However, whether the proposal can actually move forward is unknown but the city manager is looking into the legality of it before the council moves further, Picard said. Truth Pharm, on the other hand, has reassured that if the plan moves forward they will be sure to help the local community sue Picard and the entire town government.
