Opioid Epidemic Adding to Costs for Local Counties

CHARLOTTE, NC – A deadly drug that knows no boundaries. The opioid epidemic is costing the country billions of dollars, affecting millions of households.

It’s also having an increased impact on first responders and budgets right here in the Charlotte area. Police, fire, and medic are on the front lines, using life-saving drugs to reverse overdoses.

In Huntersville, each fire truck is equipped with two doses of Narcan, the life-saving drug that reverses a heroin overdose.

“It’s a huge spike since, 2013, 2014 in opioid overdoses. And that’s not just heroin, that’s a lot of your pain medicine, prescribed pain medications,” explains Bill Suthard, with the Huntersville Fire Department.

Suthard says firefighters there can expect to administer Narcan at least once a week, sometimes more.

From 2005 to 2015, overdose deaths more than doubled in Mecklenburg County, according to Governor Roy Cooper’s office.

Statewide deaths increased 73 percent during that same time.

“Places a considerable strain on many departmental budgets,” explains Gaston County Manager Earl Mathers.

He says taxpayers will face the brunt of many costs associated with opioid addiction: from more people in jail to equipping first responders.

“The drug itself, and then administering it, costs about $47 per dose,” Mathers says.

In just the past year, Gaston County EMS has responded to 136 overdose calls, in which they administered 238 doses of Narcan.

It has cost Gaston County EMS nearly $70,000 to bring overdose patients to the hospital in the past six months.

“It’s easy to say cost. But that’s not the bad part. It’s the.. it’s the loss of life,” explains Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey.

Cathey says the impact on his county has been devastating, affecting families from all backgrounds and socioeconomic classes.

“It’s not like drinking a beer and sobering up and going home. These are life-taking drugs,” Cathey says.

Experts say prevention is cheaper than continuing to pay for expensive treatments.

Governor Cooper is part of an opioid commission put together by President Trump.

WCCB Charlotte asked the Governor recently about the costs of fighting addiction.

“It’s an economic injury to all of us. Another reason why we have to attack this problem,” Cooper said.

County-by-County Figures: The Opioid Crisis in North Carolina