Seed money that would have provided an antidote for heroin overdoses in Fulton County was delayed a week, after commissioners expressed concerns that the drug problem wasn't being looked at countywide.
Fulton leaders are considering spending about $50,000 to fund the distribution of naloxone, a drug that can help people who are overdosing on heroin or fentanyl, to police departments in the county. The money would be given to the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition, which would distribute the doses to the Fulton County and city police departments.
But a presentation that referenced the North Fulton Heroin Working Group — a task force created by the county's district attorney — bothered some commissioners, who wanted to make sure they money was not only directed to North Fulton.
While that area has seen the largest increase in heroin-related deaths, commissioners said, more deaths are occurring in other parts of the county. In 2015, 104 people died of such overdoses in Fulton, more than anywhere else in the state.
Vice Chairman Liz Hausmann told commissioners the task force was named before the full breadth of the problem was determined. She insisted that the south part of the county was also being included.
But Commissioner Joan Garner blasted the lack of coordination between the DA’s office and the county and Chairman John Eaves suggested the county might want to cast a wider net, and spend more money, to combat the problem.
In the meantime, Commissioner Bob Ellis said, the board shouldn’t delay approving a naloxone program that could accelerate “getting it into hands that could save somebody’s life.”
He also suggested the county consider programs that would allow drug users to turn in their paraphernalia in exchange for help.
Nationally, the number of deaths has skyrocketed. More than 10,500 people died of heroin-related overdoses in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up 26 percent from 2013, and the rate of heroin-related overdoses had already quadrupled over the preceding decade.
The National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit on the topic drew President Barack Obama to Atlanta last month.
The funding measure, which will be on next week’s agenda, is “just a first step in the process,” Fulton County Chief Operating Officer Todd Long said.
“It’s not a new issue,” Garner said. “It is an epidemic.”
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