Southwest Austin Dripping Springs Edition | June 2023

HEALTH CARE BRIEFS Advocates demand action as Austin’s drug crisis worsens

2023 HEALTH CARE EDITION

DRUG DEATHS INCREASE One year after Travis County declared an opioid epidemic, drug deaths continue to rise.

Drug-related deaths

Fentanyl deaths

BY KATY MCAFEE

Council is also planning on hiring a dedicated full-time sta member to increase harm reduction strategies— those which aim to reduce negative impacts from drug use—in the city, Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said. Throughout the past year, local leaders tackled the opioid crisis with community outreach programs; educational awareness campaigns; and increased access to overdose-re- versing medication Narcan in bars, vending machines and the pockets of law enforcement ocers. Despite these increased eorts, the 2022 medical examiner’s report released in April showed fentanyl overdoses more than doubled from 2021 to 2022. Overdoses increased dramatically among Hispanic and Black communities as well as women. While Narcan saved hundreds of lives last year—an average of 53 a

2018

It’s been one year since Travis County declared drug deaths a public health crisis, and the numbers have gotten worse, according to Travis County data. Local leaders and activists gathered at the Texas Harm Reduction Alli- ance’s front yard May 24 to commem- orate the lives lost to overdoses and announce a plan for how to spend roughly $3 million the city and county received from opioid settlement funds. City and county ocials will create a small committee of experts to inform them how the settlement funds should be spent, County Judge Andy Brown said. On June 1, the city launched a dash- board with information on how many overdoses are happening locally as well as where residents can get Narcan and other harm reduction resources.

2020 2019 2021 2022

Fentanyl overdoses more than doubled from 2021 to 2022

100

200

300

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500

Total deaths

SOURCE: TRAVIS COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER’S OFFICECOMMUNITY IMPACT

month, according to the THRA—co-Ex- ecutive Director Cate Graziani said it has its weaknesses. For one, Narcan is administered when an overdose is already happening, not before. Plus, ocials have struggled to keep the Narcan vending machines fully stocked due to funding shortages and a lack of streamlined oversight, Graziani said. “It’s no one’s job to replenish the

vending machines,” Graziani said. To eectively address the opioid crisis, Graziani said leaders need to increase access to preventive tools. However, a Texas bill to legalize fen- tanyl test strips—a tool that Graziani said could dramatically decrease drug deaths—stalled in the Senate Commit- tee on Criminal Justice last month. The test strips remain illegal as they are classied as drug paraphernalia.

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