Opioid Use and Misuse

OVERDOSE DATA TO ACTION , federally funded by The Center for Disease Control

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health (CCBH) will serve in the role of Overall Project Lead for the CDC Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement.  Historically, CCBH has participated in drug overdose prevention activities and initiatives and has assumed a lead role in statewide and local injury prevention related groups, task forces and partnerships.  We are focused on working closely with all of our collaborative partners to ensure the proposed data/evaluation and prevention strategies are successfully implemented and all required work is completed.

Click here to learn about our year one initiatives. 

What are the most common drugs that people in Cuyahoga County overdose on? See chart below.

Overview of Local Drug Related Deaths

• The leading cause of injury-related death in Ohio continues to be accidental drug overdose
• Heroin and Fentanyl are two of the main factors in the increase in fatal overdoses
• Ohio has experienced nearly an 800% rise in fatalities since 2000

• The United States consumes nearly 80% of the world’s total opioid supply, even though it makes up only 5% of the world’s population
• About 75% of all prescription drug overdose deaths can be attributed to opioid pain relievers.

Contributing Factors

• Changes made to clinic pain management guidelines during the late 1990’s
• Over-prescribing of high-potency pain medication
• Patient satisfaction surveys (HCAHPS/Press Ganey Scores) that affected hospital reimbursement from insurance companies
• The development of drugs that could not be abused, which may have turned users toward heroin
• Marketing medications directly to consumers/users
• The lack of treatment for users who want to enter recovery
• The stigma, or perception, of seeing drug addiction as a moral failure rather than a physical/medical issue
• Putting many people in jail for non-violent drug-related crimes