NEWS

Ohioans see drug use as urgent health problem, poll shows

Terry DeMio
tdemio@enquirer.com

Ohioans believe drug use is a health problem. In fact, they say it's the most urgent health problem in the state.

Results of an Ohio Health Issues Poll released today show that 21 percent of those surveyed believe drug use was it. The next biggest response was concern about health insurance, at 18 percent. (The concerns include the cost of health care, coverage gaps for those who are insured, accessibility to insurance and general worries about the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.)

The survey's results do not surprise Dr. O'dell Owens, president and CEO of the agency that funded the survey, Interact for Health.

"Heroin users go through every occupation, and every population," Owens said. That's a change from when crack cocaine was used at epidemic levels, he said, when black Americans, many of whom were impoverished, were plagued.

"It's in a different population, so, unfortunately, it seems to have gotten more attention."

Ohioans have been in the midst of a nationwide heroin and opioid crisis for years, experiencing ever-increasing death tolls from accidental drug overdose. The scourge was triggered after communities, often white and rural,  experienced widespread prescription drug use. When law enforcement and regulators cracked down on pill mills and began to track doctors' prescriptions and patients' receipt of the drugs, people often turned to heroin.

Since 2014, Ohio has been particularly plagued with deaths from fentanyl, a fake opiate that is often passed off as heroin or mixed in with heroin.

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Interact for Health, a suburban Cincinnati nonprofit that promotes and helps fund health community initiatives and living, released the survey.

The foundation serves 20 counties in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Interact paid for the poll, which was conducted July 14-Aug. 5, before a summer barrage of overdoses in Cincinnati and its surrounding communities.

The Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati conducted the poll, with a random sample of 863 adults from across Ohio interviewed by phone. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

The survey also asked respondents to rate their general health. Half of those responding said their health was excellent or very good. More than 3 in 10 reported their health was good. Almost 2 in 10 said theirs was fair or poor. The results were similar in 2015.