Dutchess officials credit new drug enforcement strategy with 50% decrease in overdose deaths
At a press conference at the Dutchess County grand jury building Wednesday, the Dutchess County executive, district attorney and sheriff announced that the county's drug task force just wrapped up an 18-month investigation that helped cut the yearly number of fatal overdoses from 97 in 2023 to about 50 in 2024.
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Dutchess County leaders are reporting a 50% decrease in overdoses this year over last.
They attribute the dip to a long-term operation that brought down 76 drug and gun dealers across the county.
But local addiction experts believe the stepped up enforcement isn't the only reason.
At a press conference at the Dutchess County grand jury building Wednesday, the Dutchess County executive, district attorney and sheriff announced that the county's drug task force just wrapped up an 18-month investigation that helped cut the yearly number of fatal overdoses from 97 in 2023 to about 50 in 2024.
In "Operation Fast and Furious," detectives fast-tracked several investigations to more quickly remove fentanyl-laced product off the streets.
They targeted high and low level drug dealers and put several extra investigators on each case.
It took a lot of overtime funds and other resources.
"When we took that approach to remove them and hopefully change their behavior to get them to stop selling the poison," said Detective Adam Harris of the drug task force, "we believe that resulted in a reduction of overdoses."
The task force executed 40 search warrants, did over 300 undercover buys and made 76 arrests.
"I didn't realize there was a drop in fatal overdoses," addiction recovery coach Corinne Hunter said. "It still feels like there's a large amount."
During an interview between client visits, Hunter told News 12 the renewed focus on dealers is important; it is not the only factor at play though.
Hunter said she is positive the increasingly wide availability of kits containing the overdose reversal medicine naloxone, aka Narcan, has also helped bring down overdose deaths.
She has even had to administer naloxone to other people on a few occasions just this year.
She often trains people on how to use the kits, "even at the grade school level."
"My son is 13 and he wants to be educated on how to use Narcan," she said, "so if he ever comes across somebody [who is overdosing], he knows what to do, because it's everywhere.
Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi said the new strategy is working.
He pointed out, though, that since 'Operation Fast and Furious' ended on Oct. 31, there has already been a noticeable uptick in overdose deaths for 2024.
Steady funding will be necessary to apply the new strategy regularly, he said.
"We'll try to improve the operation and continue it going forward so that the overdose deaths don't just continue to rise back up," Parisi said.
Dutchess County awarded the task force $500,000 this year and will give another $1.75 million in 2025.
Detective Harris said the task force is about to start another large scale operation.
