Opioids

In Missouri, the average person born in 2021 could expect to live to be 74.6 years old, a whole three years younger than the average age ten years ago. The state’s drop is part of a nationwide decline, though the life expectancy in Missouri is lower than the United States average.

The St. Louis Department of Health will soon hire 14 new staff members to create the bureau, which will address the lack of treatment options for drug addiction and mental health problems.

Health workers in St. Louis will soon be placing dozens of life-saving “naloxboxes” in St. Louis and St. Louis County neighborhoods where there are many opioid drug overdoses and few clinics and hospitals. The boxes contain the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and will be put in high-visibility, public areas.

St. Louis County is on track to see 3,000 patients this year for mental health treatment, up from 2,300 last year. County Executive Sam Page wants to use federal coronavirus relief money and funds from a large settlement to help the demand.

New data on opioid deaths among Black St. Louisans show fatal overdoses up by more than 500% since 2015. A physician and a researcher with the new CENTER Initiative discuss what they’re doing to reduce those deaths.

Fentanyl is driving an overdose crisis that’s proving especially deadly for Black Missourians. Now St. Louis and Kansas City are starting to see the effects, but health experts say that existing efforts to treat substance use disorder aren’t helping the people who need it most.

In the first three quarters of 2021, there were 780 overdose deaths in the St. Louis region, about the same as during the same period in 2020, according to the Missouri Institute of Mental Health at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The St. Louis area accounted for nearly half of fatalities statewide.

St. Louis County is set to receive $45 million from the settlement with drugmakers and manufacturers, which will be paid out in portions over more than a decade. The county could use the money to upgrade the medical examiner's office, which is swamped with overdose victims, County Executive Sam Page said.

The money will fund addiction treatment and prevention programs in the state, addressing the harm inflicted by the opioid crisis.

Betty Frizzell is the former police chief of Winfield, Missouri. Her memoir, “If You Can’t Quit Cryin’, You Can’t Come Here No More," explores her family's history of poverty, crime and mental illness.