AKRON, Ohio - Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro today announced an aggressive plan to combat the opioid epidemic in the Akron area during her state of the county address at the John S. Knight Center.
Shapiro said she signed a proclamation earlier in the day declaring a state of emergency as it relates to opiates and overdoses. The document outlines specific requests of the state and federal government should additional funds become available to help fight the epidemic.
Shapiro also said Summit County, along with several other local communities, including Akron, Barberton and Cuyahoga Falls, will pursue a lawsuit against the manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids.
"Over the last several months, my staff worked with both a national and local firm to bring the fight to those who deceitfully and maliciously flooded our community with heavily-addictive pain killers that led many down the road to despair," Shapiro said. "Together, we will stand up to the manufacturers and distributors of these drugs and tell them 'enough is enough -- no more in Summit County.'"
The emergency declaration "is not just a hollow battle cry," Shapiro said. "It is the product of careful consideration, consultation and planning."
Summit County has spent almost $112 million in taxpayer funds over the past five years on drug and opioid related issues, according to Shapiro. The county will spend another $155-$165 million over the next five years.
"That's right folks - over a 10-year period of time, the county will spend over a quarter of a billion dollars simply trying to keep up with the epidemic," she said.
Shapiro also said she would introduce legislation to donate 25 acres on the former Edwin Shaw campus. If approved, the county will work with local nonprofits Restore Addiction Recovery and Hope United (formerly Breaking Barriers) to turn the site into a new long-term, in-patient treatment center and sober-living community center.
Since 2012, the number of autopsies performed by the Summit County Medical Examiner increased 47 percent, said Shapiro.
As a result, the county hired a new deputy medical examiner and hired new staff. The state's mobile morgue was in Summit County five times, where more people died from drug overdoses in 2015 and 2016 than the entire decade of 2000 to 2009, Shapiro said.