Coroner Awarded Toxicology Grant

On September 17th, 2024 the Coroner's office was notified they were awarded a toxicology grant for $10,000 dollars through the  Crawford County Opioid Settlement Funding Program.  This grant is important because in many of the current opioid prevention and education programs, the concentration is on the education of teenagers and young adults. Then, it moves to education and prevention efforts for those young adults addicted to opioids obtained illegally. What is commonly missing from the equation is the number of older Americans addicted to and dying from opioids.

In the past three years, our office has seen an increase in the age of persons who have died from opioid overdose. In 2021, our average age of an opioid death was 38 years old. In 2022, that number increased to 41; in 2023, the average age reached 51. We have reason to believe the age will continue to increase. Nationally, drug overdose death rates for older adults were lower than for other age groups but have increased in the past two decades. Deaths for adults aged 65 and over increased from 2.4 to 8.8 deaths per 100,000 standard population.

The underlying problem with this information is that the totals are achieved from autopsy and toxicology testing conducted on those who have died of 'suspected' overdose. These are cases where obvious drug-related items are on scene or circumstances of past activity by the deceased lead to an assumption of overdose. In cases where evidence may have been removed from the scene, or where no outward assumptions can be made other than the death is a result of natural causes, no additional toxicology testing is done. Due to the cost of toxicology testing, deaths must meet specific criteria to warrant the expenditure of testing. This leaves many possible cases unknown.

This project allows our office to have toxicology testing conducted on a broader scale to determine if there is a larger number of older adults dying from opioid overdose than has been previously suspected. If this is found to be the case, it will change the landscape of education and prevention efforts from solely focusing on younger at-risk persons to including older adults.