The local governments suing drug companies over the opioid crisis say addiction has cost them鈥攏ot just in damage to people鈥檚 lives, but in dollars and cents.
It鈥檚 hard to come up with a price tag, though. Numerous different agencies handle prevention, treatment and response to overdoses. The federal government, state of Ohio, foundations and local communities are all paying for the epidemic.
While the crisis hasn鈥檛 broken local budgets in the Mahoning Valley, it has burdened them, agency officials say.
Stopping Opioids At The County Jail
Several jails in Ohio have had a problem recently: people have been overdosing while incarcerated.
Maj. Daniel Mason, who runs the Trumbull County jail in Warren, said inmates have smuggled drugs inside.
鈥淎ctually, they pack it into a body cavity,鈥� Mason said. 鈥淏ecause when you come into the jail, you have to change out from your civilian clothes into jail clothes, and that鈥檚 the only place that something wouldn鈥檛 be discovered.鈥�
Last year, not unlike something seen in airport security lines: a body scanner. The price? About $120,000.
Inmates step on a platform, which slides them through an X-ray machine, Mason explained. An image pops up on a screen in front of a sheriff鈥檚 deputy.
鈥淚t will determine if somebody has something on them that we can鈥檛 see during a pat down or during like a change-out search,鈥� he said.
Still, 鈥攅惫别苍 . But Mason said deputies have caught things, too, thanks to the device.
Rising Safety Costs
Trumbull County had the highest fatal overdose rate in Northeast Ohio for the years 2011 to 2016, .
Its public safety costs . , the county spent $20.2 million on safety. This year, Trumbull is planning for $26 million in expenses, according to the county auditor.
Some of that is because of a . But that鈥檚 not the only reason. Mason said the jail is crowded, and that means higher costs for food and medical care.
鈥淎 lot of times the inmates are reaching out to the workers that are in the jail, and explaining that the reason that they鈥檝e committed these offenses are because of drug addiction problems,鈥� he said.
Overdose deaths in Trumbull County doubled from 2014 to 2016, rising from 54 to 111. Spending at the coroner鈥檚 office jumped 9 percent over that time, according to data in . The coroner that more deaths meant more medical tests.
Crisis Hits Addiction And Mental Health Services
Other agencies are feeling the strain, too.
The director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, April Caraway, said addiction recovery has taken up a larger share of her budget in recent years.
Take spending on treatment over the past fiscal year, for instance.
鈥淲e鈥檝e already spent a million and a half dollars this year on addiction treatment services, and that鈥檚 the most in any year ever,鈥� Caraway said.
The board receives local tax dollars as well as state and federal funds. Caraway said the board allocated $32,000 in state prescription money to buy naloxone, the overdose reversal drug, for local law enforcement.
But for her, one federal program looms over everything.
鈥淢y biggest worry is that they would get rid of Medicaid expansion,鈥� she said.
Last year, Medicaid expansion covered an average of $371,000 per month in mental health treatment costs for people who get care through the Trumbull County board, according to a cost breakdown provided by Caraway. She said the board would have to come up with that money if the coverage were no longer available for those patients.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have that money,鈥� Caraway said. 鈥淲here鈥檚 that money going to come from?鈥�
Looking To Local Taxpayers
Child welfare agencies across the state say they鈥檙e seeing more kids in need of foster care or living with extended family because of opioids.
Statewide, foster and residential placement costs rose 17 percent from 2013 to 2016, according to the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. Drug-related cases accounted for 42 percent of the 2016 placement costs.
Last year, Mahoning County voters approved a replacement levy that slightly increased property taxes to pay for the child services agency. Voters in several other Ohio counties, including and , also passed levies last year for child service agencies.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at $750,000 more to work with,鈥� Jennifer Kollar with Mahoning County Children Services said. 鈥淪o that is going to help us increase our intake department, it鈥檚 going to help us be able to take more phone calls.鈥�
Kollar said the agency is talking about bringing in addiction specialists now, too.
Next door in Trumbull County, children services director Tim Schaffner said his agency hasn鈥檛 sought a levy increase yet.
鈥淏ut we鈥檙e watching our budget and expenditures very closely,鈥� Schaffner said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e very conservative, but we expect to start deficit spending by 19, by 2019. If that trend continues, we probably will.鈥�
Schaffner said he鈥檚 an optimist, but he suspects there鈥檚 a long way to go before the opioid crisis is over.
鈥淚 would suspect that we鈥檒l be asking our voters to approve a little more money,鈥� he said.
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