WASHINGTON, D. C. (Wednesday, October 17, 2018) –– Opioid-related overdose deaths jumped to 1,185 in Maryland during the first half of 2018, a 15 percent spike over the same period in 2017, recently released data from the Maryland Department of Health reveal. That’s more tragic news for a state reeling from 2,009 opioid-related deaths in 2017, and where the “corridor along Interstates 70 and 81” in its westernmost region is known as “Heroin Highway.” The Maryland Department of State Police is continuing its laser-like focus on waging “traffic stops and complex criminal investigations” aimed at “stopping the flow of heroin into Maryland.” Remarkably, Maryland State Troopers are also saving the lives of overdose victims.

Concern is rising about crash deaths involving opioids in Maryland, including a fatal head-on collision near the iconic Bay Bridge involving three vehicles on March 11, 2018 that killed an 81-year-old driver hit by another driver reportedly driving at a high rate of speed under the influence of heroin. Statewide, first responders and “non-paramedic first responders,” including the Maryland State Police troopers “assigned to patrol duties,” are trained how to administer Naloxone (Narcan®, Evzio®), an overdose prevention substance, and they carry vials of Narcan on their gun belts, a strategy it pioneered in the United States in 2014. The Virginia State Police, and eight law enforcement agencies in Virginia, also carry the opioid-overdose antidote.

As they have multiple times since 2015, Maryland State Troopers, and other local police officers and sheriffs’ deputies in the state, are reviving opioid overdose victims who don’t seem to have a “ghost of a chance” of survival. Lawmen are saving lives in a “nick of time,” that crucial “Golden Hour of trauma morbidity and mortality,” before paramedics arrive. Maryland State Troopers administered the overdose prevention substance at least 267 times since 2015, and the Montgomery County Police saved 57 overdose victims in 2017. On February 2, 2018, Maryland State Troopers on routine patrol administered Narcan and saved the life of a driver who reportedly suffered a heroin overdose while operating his vehicle in the middle of the road in Cecil County.

“As opioid-related deaths, and especially as fentanyl-related deaths increase at ‘an alarming pace’ in Maryland, in the words of state public health officials, a growing body of evidence suggests driving under the influence of drugs, including opioids, is becoming an increasing threat to motorists on the road,” said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic’s Manager of Public and Government Affairs. “Police are encountering more drivers blacked-out behind the wheel from overdoses. As some states witnessed a sevenfold increase in fatal crashes linked to opioids over the last 20 years, the Maryland State Police, and other law enforcement agencies in the state, are the ‘tip of the spear’ in combatting this deathly scourge on Maryland roadways.”

On April 22, a driver suspected of overdosing on opioids was involved in a fatal crash in Arnold, Maryland, that killed a 12-year-old seventh grade student who was walking on a sidewalk with his mother and brother. In fact, an overwhelming majority of drivers, 90.8 percent, perceive people driving after using illegal drugs to be either a very serious threat, or a somewhat serious threat to their personal safety, notes the Traffic Safety Culture Index released in 2018 by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Nationwide, the “prevalence of prescription opioids detected in fatally injured drivers has increased in the past two decades,” according to research published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). Researchers at Columbia University examined fatal crash data and toxicological tests for drivers fatally injured in six states, including West Virginia. They found: “the prevalence of prescription opioids detected in fatally injured drivers increased from 1.0% in 1995 to 7.2% in 2015.” They conclude: “the need to assess the effect of increased prescription opioid use on traffic safety is urgent.” The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) reports: “Opioids can cause drowsiness and can impair cognitive function, both of which can have obvious effects on driving.”

Then there is the grave matter of “opioid dependence or addiction” and overdosing on prescription and illicit drugs behind the wheel, or in the bedroom, in the boardroom, or in the back alley. On April 26, 2018, Maryland State Police responded to a crash in Anne Arundel County on Interstate 97 near Route 50, involving a driver found unconscious behind the wheel. Emergency responders reportedly administered “multiple dosages of Naloxone” to revive the driver, who was rushed to the hospital and subsequently “arrested on suspicion of driving while impaired by a controlled dangerous substance.” Anne Arundel County experienced 929 opioid-related overdose deaths and 550 heroin-induced overdose deaths from 2007 to 2017, reports the Maryland Department of Health. It suffered 139 drug and alcohol deaths from January to June 2018. America experienced 72,000 drug overdose deaths during 2017, reports the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

A “plethora of opioid medications” is a factor. The National Capital Area of Maryland –Prince George’s and Montgomery County – collectively experienced 1,051 opioid-related intoxication deaths;  614 heroin-related related intoxication deaths; and 360 prescription opioid-related intoxication deaths from 2007 to 2017, as state public health officials reported July 26, 2018. The area saw 123 drug and alcohol deaths from January through June 2018, according to Maryland Department of Health’s preliminary unintentional drug-related and alcohol-related intoxication deaths update through the 2^nd quarter 2018. The Maryland Department of Health reports:

• Prince George’s County emerged as the scene of 540 opioid-induced intoxication deaths; 324 heroin-related overdose deaths; 149 prescription opioid-related deaths from 2007 to 2017. That fatal tally includes 124 opioid-related intoxication deaths, 52 deaths resulting from heroin overdoses, 14 prescription opioid-related deaths in 2017. It recorded 69 drug and alcohol deaths, January-June 2018.

• From 2007 through 2017, Montgomery County was the locus of 511 opioid-related intoxication deaths, 290 heroin-related overdose deaths; and 211 prescription opioid-related deaths. In 2017, the county experienced 91 opioid-related intoxication deaths and 52 unintentional heroin overdose deaths, and 19 prescription opioid-related deaths, as the county police “responded to 57 overdoses in which people survived and 69 fatal overdoses.” From January-June 2018, it witnessed 54 drug and alcohol deaths.

“During 2017, there were 2,282 drug and alcohol-related intoxication deaths in Maryland. Of those deaths, 2,009 were opioid-related. Fentanyl-related deaths continue to rise, increasing from 1,119 in 2016 to 1,594 in 2017,” according to the 2017 Annual Overdose Death Report by the Maryland Department of Health. “Cocaine-related deaths are also up from 464 in 2016 to 691 in 2017. The number of heroin-related and prescription drug-related deaths dropped slightly in 2017 when compared to 2016.”  What is more, “During this six-month period, which encompasses January through June of 2018, there were 1,325 total unintentional intoxication deaths, a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2017,” reports the Maryland Department of Health. “Of these, 1,185 were opioid-related deaths in the state, including 1,038 fentanyl-related deaths.”  Heroin-related deaths fell from 587 during the same period in 2017 to 469 in 2018, while prescription drug-related deaths dropped from 213 deaths from January to June 2017 to 199 from January to June 2018.

In addition to enforcing traffic laws, conducting traffic stops, and seizing with probable cause caches of drugs and guns in cars, Maryland State Police troopers, as well as nearly 20 other law enforcement agencies in Maryland, are also deploying Narcan in overdose emergency situations in the state. By December 2016, officers with at least 1,214 law enforcement departments across the United States, compared to 971 in 2015, carried Naloxone (Narcan) dispensers and kits to perform lifesaving interventions. In addition to the Maryland State Police, that number included 18 other law enforcement agencies in Maryland, up from eight in the state 2015.

All told, emergency responders and police officers in Maryland “administered 20,000 lifesaving dosages of Naloxone” across the state of Maryland during 2017, according to The Washington Post Editorial Board. “A total of 6,655 patients were administered naloxone by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel and providers in the period from July 25, 2017 and January 22, 2018,” says the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems (MIEMSS). Naloxone, also known as Narcan®, Evzio, “is a prescription medication that safely and effectively reverses an opioid overdose,” explains the Maryland Department of Health. To prevent overdose deaths, rescuers can deploy the medication as a shot or intranasal spray. 

During 2017, troopers and personnel with the Maryland State Police administered Narcan at least 154 times to the overdose victims they rescued during their patrols in 19 of Maryland’s 23 counties, according to a review by AAA Mid-Atlantic of the 2017 Annual Report by the Maryland State Police. In the wake of the ongoing opioid epidemic, it comprises a 77 percent increase over 2016 and nearly a 500 percent increase  over 2015, in the use of the “save shot” by Maryland State Troopers to “rescue someone from an overdose.”  While on patrol in 2017, Maryland State Troopers administered Narcan 35 times to reverse overdoses in St. Mary’s County; and they deployed the medication 22 times in Cecil County to prevent fatal overdoses a year ago.  To render “quick treatment before paramedics arrive,” Maryland State Troopers administered the overdose reversal drug 21 times in Calvert County last year, in addition to four times in Prince George’s County to save the lives of overdose victims; and one time for an overdose reversal situation in Montgomery County.

Discharging their duties along the state’s highways, Maryland State Troopers “administered Naloxone to overdose victims 87 times in 2016.” In contrast, in 2015 Troopers administered doses of Naloxone 26 times.  In 2014, Maryland State Troopers were trained how to administer Naloxone and they were also issued a Naloxone kit to carry on their gun belts, a pioneering effort. In fact, “the Maryland State Police was one of the first state police agencies in the country to establish this type of program and equip all patrol troopers with Naloxone,” notes the Department’s 2015 Annual Report. In 2015, patrol troopers with Naloxone “saved multiple lives during the year when they administered the drugs to persons who overdosed on heroin.”

In the process of administering the lifesaving medication to overdose victims, Maryland State Police troopers follow a policy of not charging the overdose victims for using drugs. “The priority for State Troopers responding to a heroin overdose is the successful recovery of the victim,” explains the Maryland Department of State Police. Highway users in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., as well as nine out of ten of their cohorts across the nation, are alarmed by the specter of drugged driving, including driving under the influence of pot and opioids. The plurality of motorists  are deeply concerned  about threats to their personal safety on the highway, given the fact that in 2016, “44 percent of fatally-injured drivers with known results, tested positive for drugs,” reports the Governors  Highway  Safety Administration (GHSA).

That’s “up from 28 percent just 10 years prior.” The GHSA study reveals “16 percent” of fatally injured of drivers with known results, “tested positive for opioids.” Furthermore, four percent of this cohort “tested positive for both marijuana and opioids.” Underscoring this, the GHSA cites data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). “In NHTSA’s 2013-2014 roadside survey, 4.7% of drivers on weekend nights and 5.5% on weekday days tested positive for opioids, considerably fewer than tested positive for marijuana (12.7% and 8.7%, respectively).” AAA urges motorists to avoid driving while impaired.

Multiple efforts are underway to combat the overdose crisis in Maryland. In January 2018, eight states, including Maryland and Virginia, issued statewide emergency declarations to address the opioid epidemic, reports the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). Since 2015, the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) has “trained more than 25,000 people,” including the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Police, “on the use of Naloxone,” which has, in turn, “saved more than 1,000 lives,” the BCHD says.

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