New Oregon data shows increase in drug overdose deaths, Fentanyl could be the cause

The Oregon Health Authority’s new overdose prevention data dashboard shows an increase in drug overdose deaths from 2020 to 2021, with the highest rate of deaths being amongst Oregon’s Black and African American communities.

While white and American Indian and Alaskan Native Oregonians had a comparable rate of overdose deaths, American Indian and Alaskan Native Oregon residents had the highest rate of hospital and emergency room visits due to an overdose.

The data dashboard shows the highest rates of overdose deaths in Josephine, Multnomah, and Klamath counties.

Ty Bradford, a provider at Ideal Option in Salem, said more treatment options are needed everywhere because it has been hard to keep up with the increased circulation of Fentanyl, a very strong opiate that also happens to be cheap and relatively easy to access.

“We’re seeing Fentanyl everywhere,” Bradford said.

There is no code for Fentanyl when reporting the cause of death on death certificates, so right now, Fentanyl-related deaths are included in the opioid deaths category.

OHA said it is working on obtaining more complete data for fentanyl-related overdoses and began collecting hospital and emergency department visit data for fentanyl overdoses in 2020.

More treatment resources needed to keep up

Ideal Option supports substance use disorder recovery through medication assisted treatment.

That treatment is a lot harder when a patient has used Fentanyl, Bradford said. This is because of something called precipitated withdrawal, which happens when medication given to a patient to treat addiction causes rapid onset of withdrawal-related symptoms.

Buprenorphine is a medication commonly used to treat opioid addiction recover. But when used on a patient who has taken Fentanyl, it is more likely to cause severe withdrawal symptoms.

“It just makes the whole process super uncomfortable for these folks,” Bradford said. And sometimes patients come in who don’t even realize they have been taking Fentanyl because they have been sold a drug that was either laced with Fentanyl or were told it was something else.

He said most of the patients he sees have an opioid use disorder, and most of the time, that opioid is Fentanyl.

Fentanyl "is a huge reason for the spike in opiate-related overdoses,” Bradford said. “We just opened a second clinic in Salem, which is a good start, but we could fill both of those clinics easily and probably a third.”

Inequities in overdose deaths are a national problem

Increases in drug overdoses in non-White racial groups and gaps in access to substance use disorder treatment aren’t unique to Oregon alone.

From 2019-2020, drug overdose death rates increased by 44% in Black communities and 39% in American Indian and Alaskan Native communities, according to a national CDC report published in 2022.

Many people are never able to access preventative care or substance us treatment before their deaths. A lower proportion of people from racial and ethnic minority groups received treatment, compared to White people, the CDC report said.

“Large systemic and structural barriers exist, impacting risk and protective factors, contributing to disproportionately higher drug overdose rates for these communities,” an OHA statement sent to the Statesman Journal said.

A need for culturally appropriate care

The fatal overdose rate shown on OHA’s data dashboard was calculated during a four-year span (2018-2021) by dividing the count of overdose deaths by the total population of the state, county, or demographic.

2022 data has not yet been finalized.

Black and African American residents represent 2% of the Oregon population, and American Indian and Alaskan Native residents also make up 2% of the population. White Oregonians represent 86% of the state population.

Several barriers exist for racial minorities when trying to access substance use disorder treatment, such as the lack of culturally appropriate care, income equality, and transportation in the places they live.

"One amongst multiple factors is limited culturally appropriate access to prevention services or health care," OHA's statement said.

Sydney Wyatt covers healthcare inequities in the Mid-Willamette Valley for the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions, and tips to her atSWyatt@gannett.com, (503) 399-6613, or on Twitter@sydney_elise44

The Statesman Journal’s coverage of healthcare inequities is funded in part by theM.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, which seeks to strengthen the cultural, social, educational, and spiritual base of the Pacific Northwest through capacity-building investments in the nonprofit sector.