The national opioid epidemic has been in full swing for years now, and Nevada is, unfortunately, too familiar with it.
Since 2018, annual opioid deaths in Southern Nevada have averaged around 313. But in the last six months alone, Clark County has recorded 230 opioid-related fatalities. These numbers reflect recent reports that last year Nevada had the fourth-highest overdose rate increase in the country.
Clark County Coroner Melanie Rouse said synthetic street drugs like fentanyl have compounded the problem.
“About 50% of our drug related deaths are now seeing fentanyl in them,” Rouse said. “When we started seeing fentanyl in our cases, it was an unknown substance, meaning that people weren't necessarily aware that they were getting fentanyl. I'd say one of the biggest shifts that we're now seeing is that people are actually seeking it, so it has now become their drug of choice.”
Rouse is also the chair of Clark County’s newly-formed Regional Opioid Task Force, a 15-member group looking at the opioid epidemic. At year’s end, the task force will produce a report outlining strategies to help the county cope with and reduce opioid addiction.
Other changes are on the way, funded in part by the $1.1 billion Nevada won as part of the National Opioids Settlement with three major companies who produced and distributed opioid medication. Clark County plans to open a first-of-its-kind opioid treatment facility within the next two years, which will provide 240 beds for Las Vegans suffering from drug addiction. And on the state level, the Nevada Division of Insurance is considering amending their coverage to include all FDA-approved drugs to combat opioid abuse.
On the nonprofit side, The PACT Coalition for Safe and Drug-Free Communities is a local organization that aims to reduce drug use through education and community connectedness. Its deputy director, Chelsi Cheatom, began the Trac-B Harm Reduction Program in 2017. It provides drug users with clean needles and overdose reversal medications, like naloxone. In 2023, the program counted 200 overdoses that were reversed with the naloxone they provided.
Cheatom had used it herself to help someone who was overdosing.
“I came across someone who was overdosing, and I was able to provide them with five doses of Narcan — it took five doses for them to come to and start breathing,” she said.
Despite the troubling opioid landscape, experts believe Nevada is on its way to reducing rates of addiction and overdose.
“All of the options for care are going to help — harm reduction, treatment, recovery — that's all part of a continuum of care for people,” Cheatom said. “We want to make sure that people are getting what they need in order to stay alive, stay healthy, and eventually get into recovery.”
RESOURCES
The Foundation for Recovery
Behavioral Health NV
Guests: Melanie Rouse, Clark County coroner and chair, Clark County Opioid Task Force; Chelsi Cheatom, deputy director, PACT Coalition for Safe and Drug-Free Communities
