The number of suspected overdoes deaths in Camden County dropped dramatically in the first half of the year, with only 109 reported, down from 177 the year before.
Camden officials feel the 39% drop proves that the expansive initiatives enacted by the board of county commissioners and several community partners are having a real, tangible impact on the community.
“We have worked tirelessly to combat this insidious epidemic, and to see in real time that our efforts are working is an indescribable feeling,” Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said.
“This report shows that curbing overdose is possible through a variety of harm reduction measures such as making Narcan and medically assisted treatment widely available. Furthermore, what can’t be discounted is the wide range of educational initiatives we have funded and produced to warn the public of the deadly impact of fentanyl.”
The rate of fatal overdoses in Camden County has fallen year after year since 2022. There were 295 total drug-related deaths in 2023, a significant decrease from 354 deaths back in 2022.
In addition, there also has been a sharp decline in Naloxone administrations in the first half of the year. According to the state Department of Health, between January and June of 2023, there were 851 naloxone administrations given in Camden County, as compared with the same period of this year, when there were 511 administrations.
“Camden County’s 2024 drug monitoring statistics, showing a dramatic reduction in fatal overdoses, is evidence of the successful collaboration between board of commissioners, law enforcement, medical and mental health professionals,” Camden County Prosecutor Grace MacAulay said.
“Contributing to this success is Camden County law enforcement’s modification of its role in combatting the opioid crisis by actively navigating those suffering from substance use disorder to life-saving resources and treatment. Camden County’s multidiscipline approach to reducing and overcoming addiction has been nationally recognized and acknowledged as an example for other jurisdictions across the country.”
The fight against the opioid and overdose epidemic kicked off in 2014, when the Camden County Addiction Awareness Task Force was formed in response to the devastating impact that the opioid crisis has had on the community. This task force is comprised of students, parents, teachers, civic organizations, medical professionals, public health providers, law enforcement and religious leaders, and its main purpose is to increase awareness of opioid abuse and addiction, reduce the demand for these substances, promote available resources for help and support the development of additional resources to treat and prevent addiction to opioids.
Over the course of the last 10 years, Camden County has enacted several transformative initiatives aimed at ending overdose, ending the taboo around talking about addiction and getting those in need proper resources such as rehab, therapy or medically assisted treatment. These efforts include:
- Installing Naloxone boxes in every school, park and county-owned building to expand access to this life-saving, overdose-reversing medication.
- Crafting a nationally recognized Medication for Opioid Use Disorder program at the Camden County Correctional Facility that has shown to reduce overdoses of participants on a large scale after release.
- Using funds from the Opioid Settlement to introduce a mobile Buprenorphine pilot program, where medically assisted treatment is dispensed from an outreach van, and provide take-home Naloxone kits to overdose and substance-use disorder patients treated in emergency departments .
- Launching an extensive fentanyl awareness campaign to raise awareness about what fentanyl is and how deadly it can be.
- Providing free Narcan training sessions, fentanyl test strips, NaloxBoxes for social service organizations and mental health support for those who have lost a loved one to substance use disorder.
U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st Dist.) said the drop shows money invested in harm-reduction measures and medically assisted treatment is the key to beating the opioid epidemic.
“I’m proud of the efforts we’ve taken in Camden County to combat this epidemic, and I’ll continue pushing in Congress to use the measures taken by the Camden County Addiction Awareness Task Force as a model for the rest of the nation,” he said.
