Officials at Clark County Public Health are disputing a presentation given to the Vancouver City Council on Monday evening that claimed the region’s opioid-related overdoses were dropping.
Deaths linked to opioid overdoses are not dropping in any sort of statistically significant way, said Public Health Director Dr. Alan Melnick, who said that they’ve been stable.
“I don’t have any evidence that opioid deaths are going down in Clark County or in the state,” Melnick said. “I wish the opioid death rate was going down, and we’re doing hopefully all we can to make that happen.”
On Monday, the Vancouver City Council heard an annual update from American Medical Response, the city’s ambulance contractor. That data were presented by Vancouver Fire Chief Joe Molina, AMR Regional Director Rocco Roncarati and Dr. Lynn Wittwer, Clark County medical program director.