Grays Harbor County is experiencing significantly higher opioid-related deaths in 2023, with numbers already surpassing all of last year’s overdoses.

Fentanyl is accounting for a much higher number of deaths this year, said Grays Harbor Coroner George Kelley in an interview last week.

“Right now our numbers are in the mid-40s for deaths involving opioids or illegal drugs,” Kelley said. “The number of overdose deaths we’re having is significantly higher than last year’s.”

The varying quality of illicitly produced drugs can be a major factor, Kelley said — inconsistent dosing could mean two identical-appearing pills could have wildly varying levels of fentanyl.

“Fentanyl is a whole different animal. The way it’s made, there’s a lack of consistency and quality in the pill,” Kelley said. “What I have read about, the pill presses, it’s real inconsistent. That’s the same with all illicit drugs. You don’t know what you’re getting.”

For deaths that involved drugs, but weren’t necessarily ODs, the county is more than double last year’s drug-involved deaths.

“We’re more than double last year’s number, 23, as unnatural ones involving drugs,” Kelley said. “This year we’re at 53 unnatural cause of death involving drugs.”

There’s no common profile for a person with a substance use disorder, Kelley said, though the average age for an overdose death was higher than perhaps expected.

“The average age of a fentanyl overdose death is just over 50 years old. It balances out to 50-55ish,” Kelley said. “Without going into specific cases, there were some that surprised me. They’re average everyday people. People you wouldn’t suspect.”

Kelley also shared concerns about the rise of the use of xylazine, a tranquilizer, that’s increasing in larger cities. Xylazine, a non-opioid sedative, cannot be treated with Narcan, though its common mixing with fentanyl means that any overdose should be treated with Narcan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I wonder about the calls that we’re not getting,” Kelley said. “The ones we don’t know about are the ones that scare me.”

While substance use disorders can be a formidable obstacle to overcome, there are people and resources out there who want to help folks do just that, Kelley said.

“There are resources out there,” Kelley said. “They get into a cycle and they don’t think there’s any way out of the cycle. But there are resources out there for people to break that cycle, to break that addiction.”

Awareness in the community

These overdose numbers come as the community prepares to honor International Overdose Awareness Day on Thursday, Aug. 31 at the Olympic Stadium in Hoquiam. Organizations with a stake in the game have come together to host the community event.

“Our event tomorrow is our local event,” said Chaplains on the Harbor Executive Director Barbra Weza in a phone interview. “It will be sponsored by many supporters in the community, many facets in the community.”

While the event is relatively new to the county, it’s been around for many years in other communities.

“Last year was our first ever event. It was pulled together in about three weeks last year,” Weza said. “This year we’ve been planning for several months. We hope it continues to grow every year.”

Those organizations who came together to pull the event together in under a month have brought in other groups this year, said organizer Sheri Reeves. There will be Narcan demonstrations and distribution, as well as other educational opportunities for the community, Weza said.

“It was a core group of people and other people pitching in as things came up. We’ve had other entities join in,” Reeves said in a phone interview. “There’s a bunch of us in Grays Harbor that have skin in the game.”

The event will have raffles, food, events, speakers and more, all family-oriented, Weza said.

“We had about 400 attend,” Weza said. “We hope it’ll be much better attended this year.”

The event is completely free, Weza said. There will be speakers who share their experiences with substance use disorder, as well as a man known as the Walking Testimony, who’s crossing the country from coast to coast to bring attention to the issues.

“Our team has been working feverishly to get everything done for tomorrow,” Weza said. “It’s for education and awareness. The international theme this year is recognizing the people who go unseen.”

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.

If you want to go:

What: International Overdose Awareness Day

Where: Olympic Stadium, Hoquiam

When: Thursday, 3:30 to 7 p.m.

Cost: Free