The drug overdose crisis in Davidson County continues to escalate, experts say, and members of the Metro Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee are seeking ways to curb the death toll.
On Thursday evening at Nashville’s Historic Metro Courthouse, three experts on the front lines of the fight against drug overdose deaths presented to the committee, including Mary Linden Salter, executive director of the Tennessee Association of Alcohol, Drug and other Addiction Services, Josh Love, an epidemiologist with the drug overdose response unit in the Metro Health Department, and DeWayne Holman, executive director of the Nashville Prevention Partnership.
Fatal drug overdoses in Tennessee have accelerated sharply since the early- to mid-2010s. In 2020, the most recent year data is available, the state recorded over 3,000 overdose deaths, an increase of 44% compared to 2019 and Tennessee’s deadliest year ever. Preliminary data suggested that the state was on pace to exceed that number in 2021.
But Councilmember Erin Evans, the committee chair who organized the meeting, said the committee has typically discussed the epidemic only when accepting grants, rarely focusing on “the awareness side of things.” That changed on Thursday night.
Salter explained the science behind addiction. “Addiction is a disease,” she said. “With addiction treatment, what we try to do is reprogram the brain, and find opportunities where we can teach people new skills and help them use new neuropathways.”
She lauded legislation that would enhance efforts to combat the crisis, including a bill that would widen access to naloxone in Tennessee.
But Salter also called on committee members to help address the state’s “provider shortage” in addiction recovery treatment. “Figuring out how to build a more robust workforce would be extremely helpful,” she said.
Love presented data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comparing Tennessee and Davidson County to peer communities across the nation. Tennessee, he said, ranks fourth nationwide in overdose death rates, and sixth nationwide in the number of annual overdose deaths.
Meanwhile, a Metro Health Department analysis of CDC data found that of the nation’s 3,100 counties, Davidson ranked 30th in the total number of overdose deaths reported.
Love attributed the crisis in large part to the rise of fentanyl, a highly potent opioid that is inexpensive and easy to produce. Lethal even in very small quantities, fentanyl often comes mixed with other substances or in the form of counterfeit pills, leading to accidental overdoses by people who believe they are taking a different drug.
The Davidson County District Attorney’s office estimates that two out of every five counterfeit pills seized contain a lethal dose of fentanyl, Love said.
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