Part-time Job Opening: Administrative Assistant at Harm Reduction Ohio
Would you like to work at Harm Reduction Ohio? We have a job opening for an administrative assistant to help run our office in Granville, located east of Columbus. The job requires being reliable. well-organized and from Central Ohio so you can work from our office located east of Columbus.
OneOhio opioid settlement board continues policy of extreme secrecy
The OneOhio opioid settlement board met today to ratify a few policies that had already been completed in secret. The 29-member board — which consists of 28 White members — approved a policy boasting of its commitment to diversity and inclusion. No irony was noted. It also approved an “Expert Panel” application that effectively excludes the impacted population and would limit the “experts” to people with formal credentials.
UPDATE: Harm Reduction Ohio lawsuits against OneOhio opioid settlement board
Harm Reduction Ohio filed the last legal brief today in its effort to get the OneOhio opioid settlement board to comply with public records and open meetings laws. The public records case is now in the hands of the Ohio Supreme Court. The open meetings case is in the hands of a Franklin County judge. At stake: whether the public has a right to know how $500 million+ is opioid settlement money is used.
Harm Reduction Ohio distributes record numbers of naloxone kits in 2022
Harm Reduction Ohio distributed a record 42,077 naloxone kits in 2022. We are Ohio’s largest distributor of the overdose-reversing drug and one of the largest in the country. A special thanks to the hundreds of people who make this enormous, life-saving effort possible.
Harm Reduction Success: Fentanyl test strips legalized; Good Samaritan law expanded
The Ohio legislature approved two harm reduction goals: legalizing fentanyl test strips and expanding Ohio’s Good Samaritan law for people who call for help when witnessing an overdose. Two young Ohio-based harm reduction groups helped make these changes happen. Thank you HEAL Ohio and BirdieLight for making a difference.
County commissioner goes from unpaid chairperson to paid head of OneOhio opioid settlement
The OneOhio opioid settlement board hired an Ashtabula County commission who was serving as OneOhio’s unpaid chairperson to be its paid interim executive director. Kathryn Whittington will keep her job as an elected official while also working as OneOhio’s executive director. No other applications were solicited or considered. The two jobs will pay Whittington a combined annual salary of $162,000 a year.
Ohio Harm Reduction Conference, November 3-4, 2023
Registration begins in February. A great line-up of discussions and speakers is planned. Mark your calendar! You don’t want to miss Ohio’s big harm reduction conference.
Harm Reduction Ohio lawsuit against opioid settlement board in court on Thursday
Harm Reduction Ohio has sued the OneOhio opioid settlement board for violating Ohio open meetings and public records law. A hearing on the open meetings case will be held Thursday in Franklin County Court. OneOhio says meetings don’t have to be open and records disclosed because it is a private foundation created to spend $500 million in opioid settlement money.
First projection of 2022: Overdose deaths on track to decline this year
Harm Reduction Ohio released its first project today on the level of overdose death in 2022. Overdose deaths are projected to decline about 6%, falling below 5,000 for the first time since 2019. However, the estimate has a larger than usual margin of error because overdose deaths fell early in the year but have increased since summer.
Harm Reduction Ohio’s online naloxone service: From small things big things come
Harm Reduction Ohio is now the largest online naloxone service in the United States. We received its first online order in February 2019. This year, we’ll provide about 10,000 naloxone kits (20,000 naloxone doses) to Ohio residents ordering online. We’ll distribute another 30,000 naloxone kits through our staff and network of 300 volunteer lat distributors.
Ohio counties with highest overdose death rates so far in 2022
Rural counties in southern Ohio continue to have the worst overdose death rates in Ohio.
‘Survivor’ contestant talks movingly of sister’s overdose death
Elie Scott, a psychologist from Georgia, revealed in this season’s first episode of ‘Survivor’ that she’d lost her older sister to overdose in 2020. It’s a moving example of a tragedy that has become common to a generation of young adults. Please watch.
What Ohio’s $1 billion opioid settlement can be spent on
The OneOhio opioid settlement is harm reduction friendly agreement…even if the board controlling most money is not. It’s important to remember that Ohio’s opioid settlement agreement is OK; it’s bungled execution of the agreement that has turned the OneOhio into a shipwreck. Read the list of intended uses yourself to understand why politicians trying to turn the settlement into a secret slush fund is so tragic.
Ohio sets new record for weeks with 100+ overdose deaths
The pace of overdose death in Ohio continues at a horrific level, far worse than even three years ago. Drug use is not the cause of Ohio’s overdose death epidemic. The drug war is the cause. Harm Reduction Ohio explains our state’s self-inflicted tragedy and what can be done to stop the overdose epidemic.
OneOhio Opioid Settlement Board’s Latest Accomplishment: An Even Whiter Shade of Pale
The OneOhio opioid settlement board added more White board members and started hiring staff. Everyone is White. Well, not everyone. Black residents make up 14% of Ohio’s population and 20% of opioid deaths. They just don’t matter to OneOhio, which claims it can operate secretly like a private club. Except this isn’t 1952. Segregation and racial discrimination is not acceptable. The shipwreck that is the OneOhio opioid settlement continues its race to the bottom.
OneOhio opioid settlement board to approve secrecy policy on Wednesday
The OneOhio opioid settlement board plans vote Wednesday to approve a policy of operating in secrecy. OneOhio will oversee spending 55% of Ohio’s $1 billion opioid settlement. Even though the settlement agreement signed by the governor and attorney general said OneOhio would comply with open meetings and public records law, OneOhio now says it won’t because…well, just cuz.
Ohio versus the United States: What does this chart tell us about overdose death in Ohio?
A new chart comparing Ohio’s overdose death rate to the national average from 1999 through 2021 reveals a lot about the cause of our state’s overdose crisis. It requires us to consider the possibility that well-intentioned actions had catastrophic consequences that we did not expected.
Cleveland singer’s moving song about the loss of her brother to overdose
Grace Blackford captures in song the lasting grief of losing a loved one to overdose. Her brother, Mark, died in 2009 when Grace was 14 years old and a student at Pleasant High School in Marion, Ohio.
The state of Ohio launches new site to order naloxone
The state of Ohio launched a centralized web site for individuals, organizations, businesses and first responders who want to order naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug. The site is called NaloxoneOhio. Harm Reduction Ohio, the state’s largest naloxone distributor, supports a centralized ordering site but won’t participate because it has no capacity to handle additional orders.
Overdose Awareness Day Events in Ohio: How to honor the 40,000 deaths of Ohioans since 2010
More than 40,000 Ohio residents have died from accidental drug overdoses since 2010. August 31 is International Overdose Awareness Day, a opportunity to memorialize the many beautiful people we’ve lost. The articlel inckudes a list of Overdose Awareness Day events in Ohio.
What it means: Final Ohio Overdose Death Numbers for 2021
The final overdose death counts are in for 2021. Last year’s toll was heartbreaking. In a series of charts, Harm Reduction Ohio takes an in-depth look, drug by drug, at how things have changed over the last 15 yers.
VIDEOS: Harm Reduction Ohio Public Policy Series
Harm Reduction Ohio’s October Public Policy Series.
Recordings now availableÂ
- October 25, 2021 – Ohio Opioid Settlements: How To Spend $1 Billion
- October 18, 2021 – Worse Than Ever: Overdose Death in Ohio
- October 11, 2021 – Ohio Drug Courts: Through Participants’ Eyes
- October 4, 2021 – Kinship Care: What Ohio Children Need
Ohio Opioid Settlements: How To Spend $1 Billion Wisely
October 25, 2021
Host: Dennis Cauchon, President, Harm Reduction Ohio
Panelists:
- Christine Minhee, Soros Justice Fellow; founder, opioidsettlementtracker.com
- Scott and Wes Weidle, impact family members; co-authors, Little Lost Boy: A Dose of Reality
- Mark Hurst, former medical director, Ohio Department of Health
Worse Than Ever: Overdose Death in Ohio
October 18, 2021
Host: Dan Brook, MD/PhD Student, Ohio State University
Prayer: Bishop Marcia Dinkins
Panelists:
- Shae Dalrymple, Communications Director, Harm Reduction Ohio
- Jaime Iten, Epidemiologist, Ohio Department of Health
- Orman Hall, Former Director,, Governor’s Cabinet Opiate Action Team
Ohio Drug Courts: Through Participants’ Eyes
October 11, 2021
Host: Molly N. True, Board Member, Harm Reduction Ohio
Panelists:
- Allie Mikolanis, Public Policy Fellow, Harm Reduction Ohio
- Gary Daniels, Chief Lobbyist, ACLU of Ohio
- Sarah Blake, Drug Court Participant
Kinship Care: What Ohio Children Need
October 4, 2021
Host: AmandaLynn Reese, Director, Outreach and Engagement, Harm Reduction Ohio
Panelists:
- Sarah Palazzo, Public Health Fellow, Harm Reduction Ohio
- Dawn Pullin, Director, Behavorial Health and Addiction, Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
- Brenda Cameron Ryan, Founder/Director, Keys to Serenity
VIDEO: Sam Snodgrass, PhD, “The Struggle for Survival: Opioids, Addiction, and the Brain”
Watch the keynote talk at Harm Reduction Ohio’s annual conference.
This hourlong video presents Sam Snodgrass’s keynote talk at Harm Reduction Ohio’s annual conference in April. It deserves your time and attention.
Sam holds a doctorate in biopsychology and had a research fellowship from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He lost it all from an addiction to opioids. Several parents who lost a child to overdose told us they did not fully understand what happed and what their child was going through until they heard’s Sam’s talk at the Harm Reduction Coalition’s conference in New Orleans or elsewhere.
Sam Snodgrass, PhD
Sam’s talk his three major parts, each one fascinating in its own right:
- His personal journey from successful academic at medical school to a homeless opioid addict who’d lost everything.
- The neuroscience behind opioids and addiction.
- Why harm reduction is crucial to reducing overdose deaths and other destructive consequences of current drug policies.
Mary
Special thanks to Mary Stafford, a mother who lost a son to overdose and did not understand what happened until hearing Sam’s talk. She hired a professional video crew to record Sam’s talk at HRO’s conference. The recording was made for Broken No More, a family organization that hopes “more enlightened drug policies may help stem the tide of addiction and overdose.”
A big thanks to Sam, Mary and Laura Cash, a board member of both Harm Reduction Ohio and Broken No More.