Delaware's opioid crisis needs radical new approaches | Opinion

With the publishing of "Opioid Use Disorder in Delaware: Policies and Programs Report" from the University of Delaware, it is clear that Delaware’s overdose problem is a direct result of its approach to rehabilitation, lack of harm reduction, and inability to foresee a safe supply — and that Delaware is in an overdose crisis.

It's therefore imperative that Delaware not only radically reconfigure its approach to rehabilitation, not decriminalize — but legalize all drugs. Although this approach may seem radical, the statistics don’t lie:

• "In 2020, the state reported 447 overdose deaths statewide — up from 431 in 2019 — and a number that has been increasing in Delaware for years,” the report observes. Despite the long list of different approaches the state of Delaware has applied, overdose numbers increased 3.7% in one year.

• “[There is a] marked increase in Delaware’s opioid overdose mortality compared to the national rate, with the state’s rate of mortality increasing 144% between 2011 and 20176," the report says. "In 2019, 387 Delawareans died of an opioid overdose; there were 355 opioid overdose deaths in 2018. Although not included in this graph, 2020 saw a marked increase of drug overdose deaths over previous years across the United States.”

• “The reach of overdose deaths hits every demographic, however, the highest rates of overdose deaths from opioids were among people 25-54 years old, higher among men than women, and higher among non-Hispanic White than non-Hispanic Black residents," the report states. "Among those who died of overdoses (of all substances) in 2019, 38.1% were experiencing unstable housing or were unhoused9, and in 2017, 35% had interacted with the Department of Corrections in the past year.”

Although Delaware bases its image and tourism on being the First State, Delaware is second in the United States in overdose mortality rates. In November 2021, The Washington Post and others reported that more than 100,000 Americans had died in overdoses in the previous year. What is the First State’s response to this? Checkmate and stalemate — family members, users, and politicians do not know what to do. Some may ask, why is this the case; and following the line through; why isn’t Delaware trying anything and everything possible to become first in the United States to revert from second to fiftieth in the United States in overdose mortality rates?

“Despite the addition of these and other programs, advocates have called on Delaware to take more drastic steps that would be commensurate to the state’s high mortality levels," the report says. "With the notable exception of Brandywine Counseling and Community Services, there has been little public advocacy for harm reduction approaches to addressing opioid use and its outcomes, and no organizations have publicly voiced support for overdose prevention centers.

“Additionally, geographical disparities in the availability of care have been noted, with access to treatment and other substance use services being less available in Kent and Sussex counties, despite these counties having high concentrations of overdose fatalities.

To illustrate that gap in services, I shared my own user perspective:

"When I shot heroin, I never had a clean needle," I told the report's authors. "There wasn’t any access to clean needles. Every time I shot heroin, or speedballs, I had to share a needle — just like everyone I ever met that shot drugs in Delaware.”

What are we missing?

What are Delaware’s loved ones of users, users, citizens, and leaders missing out on when it comes to the overdose epidemic and how to reverse it?

If you could mainline God, would you do it, again?

I dive the needle into my arm and pull the plunger back till it hits red and I shoot the ocean down the barrel and into the chamber. My neck tightens and releases as dopamine floods my forehead as I begin swimming heroin’s deep. Snorkeling without time, I search for the treasure on the sea floor – I could never find in my life. My cousin Mickey tells me later, that I turned blue as the ocean and my breathing slowed to a faint breeze. I overdosed.

I felt rock bottom that day lying on the bed with heroin coursing through my body and my cousin trying to save me as my lungs further collapsed. My cousin decides to shoot me up with cocaine to snap me out of my overdose. I rise to the surface of the warm waters and explode back into the cold reality of my life. I smell the burning menthol between Mickey’s collapsing fingertips. Mickey’s holding me in his arms, weeping, and repeating: “I’m already dead.” The freshest menthol cigarette I’ve ever tasted trembles in his lips­.

As of Dec. 31, close to 1,000,000 Americans have died of an overdose since the CDC began collecting data on overdoses in 1999.

Mickey saved me. But there was no one there to save him a few years later. He hit rock bottom, but it was too late. He died. He overdosed. Mickey was my savior. Mickey was on his knees asking for help.

I’m on my knees asking for help from the governor and lieutenant governor of Delaware, and I’m on my knees asking for help from the president of the United States — himself from Delaware.

This crisis is at rock bottom. The overdose survivor in me and everyone else around the world is a symptom and serves a function in society: We need to help them get on their knees — before it’s too late.

Jordan McClements is a resident of Felton.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware's opioid crisis needs radical new approaches