Displaying items by tag: Dr Doug Smith

As we continue to define the heroin problem, officials recognize that it has become an epidemic across the nation, and especially in the Akron area. 

The following is from the Summit County Public Health Population Health Vital Statistics Report: From January 1, 2016 to July 31, 2016, emergency rooms serving Summit County residents have treated an estimated total of 1,019 drug overdoses.* Since the beginning of 2016, cases per day remained relatively low, averaging 3 per day from January 1 - July 4 (Figure 1a). However, beginning in the second week of July, overdoses began rising rapidly from 3 per day to 14 per day through the remainder of July. After reaching 10 cases for the fi rst time on June 26, the number of drug overdoses ended up hitting double-digits on 21 of the 31 days in July, reaching a high of 25 on July 27th. All told, there were 395 estimated overdoses in July 2016, which matched the total number of overdoses seen between March 1 and June 30; a span of 122 days.

We spoke with Dr. Doug Smith with the Summit County ADM Board about what is causing, in part, the surge in heroin-related overdoses here in Summit County: