The good news: the number of people in Monroe County who died from opioid overdoses decreased last year. The bad news: the number was 195 people, and that’s much higher than it was even five years ago. The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office released its annual statistics on overdose deaths this morning. And 2018 marked […]
Monroe County opioid epidemic
Posted inNews & Opinion
Excellus says it’s seeing fewer opioid prescriptions
Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield says that between 2013 and 2017, it saw a 35 percent drop in the opioid prescriptions filled by its “commercially insured” customers across New York State. And the decrease is higher than what the insurer is seeing in its other markets across the country, which have an average 29 percent […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Law enforcement agencies launch heroin task force
The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office and law enforcement agencies across the county are partnering on a new task force that will collect data about heroin overdoses and route intelligence to local agencies in the hopes of building strong cases against heroin dealers. The task force is the latest county-level plan targeting the opioid epidemic. Monroe […]
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Programs train the public to help overdose victims
At this point, the opioid crisis is inescapable. Prescription painkiller abuse and the use of increasingly dangerous heroin-fentanyl mixtures is happening across social and economic lines. And the disease of addiction has some people so firmly in its grip that locally they’ve overdosed in parking lots, libraries, and other public places. Some have even overdosed […]
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Program aims to boost supply of pathologists
Medical examiners’ offices across the country are facing a shortage of forensic pathologists, the key medical investigators who perform autopsies. The Monroe County medical examiner’s office is no exception. Like other agencies across the country, it’s been dealing with an increase in autopsy cases due to the opioid epidemic and related overdose deaths, the county […]
