Overdose deaths in Montgomery County (OH), anchored by Dayton, have plunged this year, after a stretch so bad that the coroner’s office kept running out of space and having to rent refrigerated trailers. The county had 548 overdose deaths by Nov. 30 last year; so far this year there have been 250, a 54 percent decline.
....When Sam Quinones, the author of “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic,” testified before Congress earlier this year, he said that “the more cops and public health nurses go out for a beer, bridge that cultural chasm between them,” the better chance the country had at solving the problem.
Dayton has largely succeeded at bridging that chasm, which too often pits a punitive, abstinence-only approach to addiction against one that seeks to reduce deaths by any means possible. Law enforcement and public health representatives work hand in hand on a two-year-old Community Overdose Action Team, sharing data and strategizing with dozens of local organizations...
To continue reading this article by Abby Goodnough, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/1...e-deaths-dayton.html
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