Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With the rates of opioid-related deaths escalating rapidly in Erie County, county lawmakers held an opioid discussion on Thursday during the Legislature's Health and Human Services committee meeting.
Among those in attendance for this discussion in the Legislature Chamber in Downtown Buffalo included Dr. Gale Burstein from the Erie County Department of Health, as well as groups that received funding for community response programming with opioid settlement funds.
Thursday's meeting was held with Erie County having seen a substantial increase in fatal and non-fatal overdoses due to opioids. To date in 2024, the Erie County Department of Health has confirmed 118 people have died from an overdose, with 95 of those deaths found to be opioid-related.
On top of that, an additional 98 people are suspected to have died from an overdose in Erie County this year alone.
District 10 Legislator Lindsay Lorigo (R) says this discussion was a something she has been wanting to have since entering the legislative body in January.
"I'm on the face-to-face coalition board of Kids Escaping Drugs. It's something that I've heard from," said Lorigo following Thursday's meeting. "I represent suburban communities, I represent very rural communities. It's conversations we've been having across the board. It's one that I've asked for in this body before when we passed this funding a few weeks ago, I asked Chairman [John] Gilmour if we could have the conversation. How can we be passing $5 million, and we're not having the groups here to talk about what they're seeing? It's the boots on the ground that know more than the county does about how to deal with these issues."
Lorigo says these types of discussions were had with regularity years ago that has since fallen by the wayside.
"In 2016, when they started the Task Force and they started dealing with these problems, what we saw then, if you watched what the county did then, the county heard from the groups and let the groups that are in the community deal with it, rather than the county saying, 'We have the answer.' That's the way solutions typically come," she said.
Among those in attendance on Thursday from the local groups serving to help those in the community dealing with drug addiction and other health problems was Brandy Vandermark-Murray, President of Horizon Health Services. She feels that sharing the different projects the organizations have been working on recently will help in the long run with trying to find solutions to combat the opioid epidemic.
"Everything from prevention, harm reduction, to research, to treatment. So today, we were able to have that dialogue, which really sparked bigger conversations that this really needs to be on the forefront of everyone," said Vandermark-Murray in an interview with WBEN. "It's a community issue, and so a lot of dialogue around how can we tackle this as the numbers continue to, unfortunately, increase."
One of the notable talking points toward the end of Thursday's meeting was Lorigo's disapproval of the administration announcing $1 million of spending on advertising against overdose deaths in 2022. County officials say about $620,000 has been spent on this initiative to date.
"In ad marketing - that's what I do full-time - to hear they're giving an agency about $220,000, just to develop the ads before we're even running anything, that is such time wasted, and money that could be spent on addressing this crisis," Lorigo said. "I was shocked. I didn't know those numbers until they brought them before us today. This money was approved of before I was in this body, but if we're spending $1 million, we should be seeing as much of that in the field as we can. I understand talking to focus groups. As somebody that does this every single day for a living, you start with ads, you see what's working and you adjust from there and you hit the largest amount of people possible. I can tell you this isn't the way it's done in the private sector. It's mind-blowing to see so much money kind of thrown away."
Lorigo specifically asked on Thursday where the county is directing people, because she is unsure of how many people are calling the Erie County Health Department after listening to these ads.
"I just don't know that it's the most effective use of the money. I think, again, if we announced this million dollar plan in 2022, it's 2024. Overdose deaths are through the roof, and it's because the county dropped the ball," she said.
The discussion surrounding the opioid epidemic in Erie County lasted for around an hour.
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