HARTFORD, Conn. — Governor Ned Lamont held a news conference Thursday morning to raise awareness of the dangers of opioid addiction and the recent increase of overdoses in Connecticut.
Opioid related deaths have jumped in recent years— 18% from 2018 to 2019 and now 22% from 2019 to 2020.
The governor was joined by several professionals who work to prevent such overdoses including:
- Miriam Delphin-Rittmon, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services
- Mark Jenkins, director of Greater Hartford Harm Reduction
- Phil Valentine, CEO of Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR)
- Rebecca Allen, director of recovery support services for CCAR.
See Facebook Live coverage of the event below.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal also spoke recently about the overdoses.
"What we’re seeing is two parallel health crises," he said. "One a virus; the other substance abuse. They are intertwined."
According to officials, Connecticut is on trend to surpass last year's 1,200 deaths. Hartford's year to date deaths for overdoses are at 81, almost double where they were at this time in 2017.
"Make no mistake about it. There’s a lot of depression going on right now. They’re out of work. They’re home. They’re quarantined and a lot of people who were drug dependent or currently drug dependent at the time they revert back to what they’re comfortable with," says Hartford Police Lieutenant Paul Cicero.
They are seeing a rising trend in the habits of people addicted to opioids.
"People that do engage in utilization of opioids are doing it alone now," says Cicero. "Prior they were doing it together with other people. Now, people are quarantined and away from each other. That may be something we need to look at potentially in the future."
Hartford Director of Health, Liany Arroyo says the city is preparing for what could be second wave in the fall and really need resources to do a better job.
"To do a job that is more proactive than reactive, so we can make sure we’re taking care of everyone in our community because everyone’s life is precious no matter where you’re at in life," Arroyo said.
