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MAYVILLE -- "Fentanyl is in everything."
That was a statement made by interim Public Health Director Dr. Michael Faulk during a meeting of the Chautauqua County Board of Health.
After the meeting, Faulk noted that it was a bit of an exaggeration, but fentanyl is present in many opioids that is killing county residents.
"When an individual thinks they are buying heroin it's probably fentanyl," he said. "When people are buying methamphetamine, it probably has fentanyl in it. Those are probably the biggest … methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine."
The county hasn't had a lot of reports of fentanyl in marijuana. But he warns that opioids "bought off the street" likely have fentanyl.
"That's our message that we're trying to get out to people," Faulk said. "You can test it, there are fentanyl test strips, but it probably has fentanyl. That's part of the reason why we're having such a high overdose rate here."
How high is the overdose rate in the county? Well, according to the Chautauqua County Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan, the county had 47 opioid deaths in 2021.
That number was reported earlier this week by The Post-Journal and OBSERVER from a state Health Department report that shows opioid deaths were up from 2020 to 2021 statewide by 14%.
But it gets even worse in the county's health assessment plan. The report states that Chautauqua County has the highest opioid burden statewide.
Faulk, who was appointed interim director of the county's Health Department in December, was not involved in preparing the report, but doesn't deny what it states.
According to the report, the "opioid burden" measure is a rate that includes outpatient emergency department visits, hospital discharges for non-fatal opioid overdose, abuse, dependence, and unspecified use, as well as opioid overdose deaths.
Faulk was asked why he thinks Chautauqua County has that highest "opioid burden" in the state.
"I don't know," he said. "I don't know if it's geographical. I'd like to try to wrap my head around that. There's lower social economic status within our county. There's higher poverty rates within Chautauqua County, relative to other counties in the state. That may have something to do with it. The geographical location of I-86 and I-90. We're in the center point of Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, I don't know if that has something to do with it."
Solving the problem is another issue all together and will require partnerships from many departments and organizations.
"This is a multi-factorial effort. It's the police and what they're doing, it's public health, it's every practice in the community that are taking care of those with opioid use disorder, all the community partners, Prevention Works, Hope Chautauqua, those are just some of the groups," Faulk said.
For public health, Faulk believes that they need to focus on education, treatment, and prevention of opioid overdoses through Narcan availability and education.
"The question becomes how do we educate, how do we increase access and how do we destigmatize this medical problem," he said. "This is a medical problem and we have to treat it like we treat every other disease."