PHARMACIST STEVE

 

http://www.thv11.com/news/health/coroners-put-under-pressure-by-opioid-epidemic/519501077

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) — The opioid epidemic is putting a major strain on aspects of the criminal justice system you may not expect.

Last week we told you that a high number of cases is causing a backlog at the Arkansas State Crime Lab.

State coroners, also feeling the heat, are working to ensure each coroner is equipped with what they need to help combat the crisis.

Last year nearly 300 people in Arkansas died of an opioid overdose. While that number may be jarring, it is likely not even close to the reality.

Coroners often determine the cause of death, which is reported to state officials.

Many coroners in our state are so inundated by the epidemic, or uneducated about it, they likely aren’t properly recording the numbers.

“We are busier than I think we have ever been,” Kevin Cleghorn, President of the Arkansas Coroner’s Association said Thursday, Feb. 15. Explaining the opioid epidemic has put a major strain on Arkansas’ coroners. “It’s taxing. So, therefore, a lot of these cases go unnoticed.”

The issue with cases going unnoticed, or unreported, is that death certificates, signed by the coroner, are collected by the Arkansas Department of Health and are then used to portray the epidemic our state is facing.

If coroners aren’t properly documenting the deaths, that affects funding the state needs to combat the epidemic.

The National Medical Examiner’s Association and the State Coroner’s Association both recommend that all bodies of people believed to have died of a drug overdose be brought to the State Crime Lab for an autopsy. But if you live in Little River County, or even as close as Hot Spring County, it can be very difficult to do so.

“A lot of our counties do not have ways to transport, they do not have means to store a body,” Cleghorn said.

“They do not have means to do full investigations simply because the funding is not there.”

Coroners in Arkansas are elected officials. They are not required to have a medical or investigative background.

And are not required to send bodies to the crime lab if the family or others ask them not to. Which could also explain why some deaths go unreported.

“I don’t necessarily like the good ole’ boy system, but I don’t know if it will ever go away,” Cleghorn said but assured us the Coroner’s Association is working hard to educate coroners on the opioid epidemic and their impact. One way of doing so is by offering classes across the State, to make things easier on participants. “I don’t know why someone if we are offering free classes, why they will not come and be a part of that. When it does nothing but make them better.”

Cleghorn says the public can help simply by checking in with County Coroners to see if they are attending training and submitting bodies to the crime lab.

Remember, these are elected officials.

Are coroners being ENCOURAGED in order to GET MORE FUNDING by declaring more deaths OPIATE RELATED DEATHS ?

Filed under: General Problems