ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — As the country continues to fight the opioid crisis, there are more encouraging signs in Erie County.
County leaders say the area is seeing another drop on deadly overdoses seven months into the year. There were 191 last year, down from the peak of more than 300 in 2016. This year we're on pace for about 160.
Leaders say that's still too many, but it's an encouraging trend, and one they say shows that the programs here work.
"We are already receiving funding from the state to expand these programs and we want to continue to expand them," said Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein. "Because we don't want to see any deaths in New York State or the United states from this preventable cause."
One of those programs is called Buffalo MATTERS, which gets patients into treatment programs faster. It's getting funding now to expand across the state.