Drug overdose deaths may drop. But overdosing is still too common in York County.

Bucking recent trends, York County may have seen fewer drug overdose deaths in 2016 than it did the year prior.

And that would be a good start to 2017 for those involved in treatment and prevention, York County health experts said.

According to the county coroner’s office, there were 60 overdose deaths in 2015. As of Wednesday, there were 39 recorded in the system for 2016, with some still pending in the final three days of the year. If final statistics show a drop year-to-year, it would go against the grain of state and national trends, and perhaps show recent prevention efforts in York County are working.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids are the main driver of drug overdose deaths. There were more than 33,000 nationally in 2015, quadrupling the total from 1999. South Carolina saw an increase of 9 percent from 2014 to 15. The state had an increase of almost 11 percent the year prior.

Those figures work out to 761 deaths in 2015. Almost 16 people per every 100,000 in South Carolina died that year from drug overdose.

An overdose death decline in York County wouldn’t indicate a drop in illegal and prescription drug abuse overall, officials said.

"Statewide, this has become an epidemic,” said Dick Mann, president of the River Hills-Lake Wylie EMS. “Nationwide it's become an epidemic. In our response area, we've seen the same kind of an increase."

River Hills-Lake Wylie EMS and the Fort Mill Rescue Squad each responded to about 1,200 calls in 2016. Neither group has statistics compiled yet specific to drug overdoses, but both groups say drug abuse remains a problem.

"Absolutely,” Mann said. “It is still working its way up. We are seeing an increase in the various opiods, including the prescription medications. It's not just the illegal drug use."

Tim McMichael, director of the Fort Mill squad, said both intentional and unintentional drug abuse is “holding steady” compared to last year. There are several repeat patients. Cases range from teens to seniors.

"The general feeling is, there's no particular demographic involved here,” McMichael said. “Patients that I've had that have been both intentional and unintentional, illegal drug and prescription drug, they range pretty much across the map. I have not seen anything that would be characteristic.”

The same holds true in Lake Wylie.

"It's all over the place,” Mann said. “Obviously in your younger patients it tends to be more of the illegal drug use. In your older patients in tends to be, they took one (prescription dose) more than they should have."

A decline in overdose deaths is welcome news to responders and drug abuse prevention experts, but they know the issue is far from fixed.

"It is still a growing problem," said Janet Bunch, treatment director with Rock Hill-based Keystone Substance Abuse Services.

Keystone serves all of York County with substance abuse services from treatment to education. They still see far more overdose death cases they they would like. In 2015, the county coroner listed almost 50 causes for the 1,859 deaths in York County. Only doctor’s signature, complications from existing conditions and heart issues — all listed as natural causes — ranked higher than overdoses. Twice as many people died in York County from drug overdose in 2015 as from cancer.

"Our problem is significant,” Bunch said. “We have received some state funding to start a medication assisted treatment program here at Keystone. We just started two weeks ago."

Overdose increases aren’t for lack of effort at Keystone and elsewhere, or even a lack of resources.

Operation Medicine Drop began in 2009, with law enforcement agencies providing a safe place to dispose of leftover prescription medication. This year, YCHOPE formed through Keystone and York County All on Board as a task force for opiod abuse prevention. Keystone also met with elected officials at a breakfast in December to coordinate efforts.

Experts say education, from people coming into contact with overdose victims to doctors prescribing painkillers and emergency responders and law enforcement, is helping curb overdose deaths.

"It's a multi-fold thing,” McMichael said. “One, EMS is being notified more often, which is leading to better patient outcomes. Two, you're starting to see a better awareness both in EMS and law enforcement of what needs to be done for these particular patients, and in what order."

More law enforcement agencies are starting to carry medication to treat overdoses, similar to what ambulances have had on board for years. Nationally, even groups like firefighters and other public officials sometimes carry the drug. Mann said at least a few patients in York County have had the drug administered by law enforcement this year.

“We have a solution,” he said, “but we have a major problem and the problem has become epidemic."

While illegal drug use is part of the problem, often it isn’t involved. Bunch said residents can take small steps to avoid problems, like questioning doctors to make sure only the amount of painkillers needed is prescribed and properly disposing of any leftovers. More doctors using a prescription monitoring program would help, too. Bunch said often people run into problems without intending it.

"People are prescribed these drugs,” she said. “They started after dental surgery, after a sports injury. They were prescribed something and worked their way up to heroin."

While overdoses draw widespread interest, they also are creating awareness responders and abuse prevention experts hope will continue to stem the tide of deaths.

"It's driving more of a general awareness," McMichael said.

This story was originally published December 30, 2016 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Drug overdose deaths may drop. But overdosing is still too common in York County.."