Local, State Agencies Given Millions in Grants to Combat Drug Addiction

Nearly $5.5 million in grant funding has been awarded to reduce the impact of opioids, stimulants and other illegal substances in Ohio’s communities, according to a press release shared by the Office of Criminal Justice Services on Aug. 28.
The funding for these grants comes from the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP), which will “provide resources supporting the development, expansion, or enhancement of substance use deflection and pre-arrest diversion programs.”
Numerous organizations in Hamilton County and the surrounding area received grants, including:

• Amberley Village, Hamilton County – $376,443.60
• Middletown Division of Police, Butler County – $115,776.64
• Cordata Healthcare Innovations, Inc., Hamilton County – $355,715.22
• Talbert House, Hamilton County – $792,744.70

Dr. Kelly Firesheets is vice president for strategy and partnerships at Cordata, a Cincinnati based software company that works with community leaders to serve “at risk,” populations. During her interview with CityBeat , Firesheets praised Cordata’s work on Quick Response Teams (QRTs) that are trained to respond when overdoses and other addiction-related incidents occur.

“The QR team model is the most widely replicated form of overdose response in the country,” Dr. Firesheets said, adding that her team has gotten to work with law enforcement agencies and healthcare providers throughout Ohio through this project.
“I spent a lot of time learning about what addiction was,” said Daniel P. Meloy, former Colerain Township Chief of Police and current director of operations for Operations 2 Save Lives & QRT National – a Cincinnati-based public health group that collaborates with Cordata – when asked about his time as a police officer during the opioid epidemic’s height.
“We didn’t go to any classes about how to collaborate to respond to addiction, or complex issues and problems within your community. All I knew from the problem solving was: we have to collaborate,” Meloy said.
Meloy now works with law enforcement officers and public health experts to educate communities on the best way to handle drug crises in their community.
“As law enforcement, sometimes we have to say: how can I be helpful? Rather than being the leader,” he said.
Ohio was heavily impacted by the opioid epidemic. According to a 2018 article from nonprofit health researcher Altarum , “From 2014 to 2016, Ohio was leading the nation in the number of opioid overdose deaths,” while an analysis from Yost’s Scientific Committee on Opioid Prevention and Education published in 2021 found, “ More Ohioans died of an opioid overdose during a three-month period last year than at any time since the epidemic began.”
Opioid-related overdoses accounted for the deaths of 3,237 Ohioans in 2018 , according to an analysis from the National Institutes of Health.
Fentanyl has been equally deadly, with 3,579 fentanyl-related opioid deaths occurring in 2023.
For Hamilton county, the opioid crisis reached its height in 2017, when 570 people overdosed, though the number has steadily dropped since then. The Ohio Department of Health , in its 2022 Unintentional Drug Overdose Report, discovered neighboring Butler county had 55 unintentional drug overdose deaths per 100,000 members of the population.
Other recipients for the COSSUP grant include:

• Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office, Lawrence County – $418,316.96
• Franklin County Office of Justice Policy & Programs, Franklin County – $838,866.10
• Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, Lorain County – $449,615.20
• Portage County Sheriff’s Office, Portage County – $369,609.28
• Ross County Sheriff’s Office, Ross County – $128,072.10
• Medina County Drug Task Force, Medina County – $241,975.72
• Defiance County Sheriff’s Office, Defiance County – $117,821.11
• The MetroHealth System, Cuyahoga County – $440,229.00
• Northeast Ohio Medical University, Portage County – $587,996.44
• Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office, Muskingum County - $205,062.41