Aug. 31, 2022
The
grant, awarded by the Department of Justice, will provide resources to rural
and frontier counties in Nevada
Carson City, NV – Today,
on International Overdose Awareness Day, the Office of the Attorney General,
along with other partnered organizations and agencies, will meet for the first
time to discuss the use of the $5.75 million Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant
and Substance Abuse Site-Based Program (COSSAP) grant announced earlier this
year.
“This grant is extremely important to send the necessary
aid to our state’s rural and frontier counties,” said AG Ford. “The
opioid epidemic does not stop at county lines, and Nevadans must stand together
to combat this problem and lift up those who have been impacted by it. This
money will do real things for real people.”
The grant funding, by the federal Department of Justice,
will be used in seven sites —Carson City, Churchill County, Douglas County, Lincoln
County, Lyon County, Nye County and Storey County —to address the drug
problem in Nevada through Mobile Outreach Safety Teams (MOST) or Forensic
Assessment Services Triage Teams (FASTT). MOST
serves as a jail and hospital diversion program, while FASTT provides
assessment and case management for high-risk individuals and those with mental
health and other disorders.
The money will also go toward providing naloxone to law
enforcement and other first responders around the state, as well toward drug
take-back days to tackle drug and related mental health crisis situations.
The grant is a collaboration between the
Nevada Office of the Attorney General, the state Department of Health and Human
Services, the Northern Regional Behavioral Health Coordinator and seven
subaward sites. The
subaward sites and their county locations are as follows:
- Partnership Carson
City (Carson City);
- Churchill Community
Coalition (Churchill County);
- Partnership Douglas
County (Douglas County);
- Healthy Communities
Coalition (Lyon County);
- Community Chest, Inc.
(Storey County); and
- Nye Community
Coalition (Nye and Lincoln Counties).
According to the state Department of Health and Human Services Office of Analytics, Nevada saw 484 overdose deaths in 2020, higher than the previous peak of 460 overdose deaths in 2011. The largest increase in overdose deaths was attributed to synthetic opioids — primarily fentanyl — at 246 of the 484 overdose deaths. The National Drug Hotline placed 28 states, including Nevada, on red alert during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased calls into their hotline from residents of the states.
Opioids are not the only drug issue plaguing
Nevada. According to Nevada’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area’s (HIDTA)
2019 threat assessment, methamphetamine use is the number one drug problem in the
Silver State.A 2020 HIDTA bulletin advised that “while
methamphetamine continues to be a top drug threat to users in Nevada, fentanyl
related overdoses are significantly increasing at an alarming rate.”
The same HIDTA bulletin reported out of 768 total overdoses
in Clark County in 2020, there was a 30% increase from 2019. There were 219
fentanyl related overdoses —a 196% increase from data reported in 2019. In looking at
overdoses solely involving fentanyl intoxication, Clark County saw a 254%
increase between 2019 (26) and 2020 (92) data. Washoe County had 203 overdoses
in 2020, a 21% increase from 2019 data, and saw a 12 % increase in fentanyl
related overdoses between 2019 (23) and 2020 (52).
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