BUFFALO, N.Y. — Some in-person Narcotics Anonymous meetings have restarted this month in Western New York for the first time since the pandemic began, but still addiction experts are calling this time "the perfect storm" for overdoses.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz sent out this tweet last week warning of fentanyl laced cocaine.
Stress from the pandemic may be causing more people to use drugs, and isolation during the Coronavirus pandemic is preventing many overdose victims from being found and saved.
And now treatment facilities in New York state are mandated to operate at half capacity in order to promote social distancing, so many who are seeking treatment are having a hard time finding an available bed.
Avi Israel, founder of Save the Michaels of the World, Inc., says he receives calls for people seeking treatment or their family members nearly every day.
"People ask to get into treatment and you have to tell them just hang on and let me see if I can get you a bed. And 9 times out of 10 now, you call them back and they'll say oh I'm not going to treatment. I'm back using again. I don't want to go to treatment. And the next thing you know, they passed," said Israel.
Israel's son Michael took his own life after being addicted to drugs 9 years ago. He's made it his mission to help other families dealing with addiction.
He said his organization may need to cut their budget by 30 percent - which means cutting services - if the federal government doesn't provide additional funding to the state and local governments.
Israel says he's seeing more people addicted to sleeping pills and Xanax, to deal with the stress of the pandemic- and it's often a lethal combination when those are mixed with alcohol.
Over the past few months in WNY, Erie County announced an 82% increase in overdose deaths and James P. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, stated that as of mid May, overdose deaths were up by 305% from the first two months of 2020.
Our non-profit partners at the Investigative Post took a closer looking at the skyrocketing numbers of overdoses. Click here to read more.