A coalition of public health groups will lead a countywide effort to continue the fight against fatal overdoses in a region all too familiar with them.
“Over two dozen or so community members will be fanning out all across the Berkshires, focusing on bringing lifesaving overdose prevention supplies, resources, and knowledge directly to people's doors," said Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Senior Public Health Planner Andy Ottoson of the Berkshire Overdose and Addiction Prevention Collaborative. “So, our primary purpose is raising awareness about changes in the opioid and stimulant supply. We're especially focusing on people who may use more recreationally. We’ll be distributing Naloxone and fentanyl test strips. We'll also be encouraging people never to use alone, and especially connect them with services as well, and especially to smash the stigma against addiction.”
Ottoson says as the Berkshires navigate a tainted drug supply, public health officials are trying to specifically reach recreational users who might not know that their party favors could contain life-threating additives.
“We're continuing to see fentanyl and xylazine in the supply," he told WAMC. "To the best of my understanding, we're primarily seeing xylazine in what is being sold as opioids, especially around fentanyl. We're especially seeing that in pressed pills, counterfeit pills that people might buy off the streets or online, as well as in stimulants, particularly cocaine.”
Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, cannot have its effects reversed by Naloxone like opioids can.
According to the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, the commonwealth lost almost 1,800 residents to opioid-related overdose deaths between July 2023 and June 2024. Berkshire County accounted for 50 of them at a rate 62% above the statewide average per 100,000 residents.
“We're pretty in line with other comparable rural communities, honestly," said Sarah DeJesus, program manager for Berkshire Harm Reduction, an office of Berkshire Health Systems. "We are seeing a decrease, which is fantastic, and we have to come up with ways that work for the Berkshires and for rural communities, because what works in Boston or in a bigger city may not work in the Berkshires. We're no better or worse off than other communities, it just takes finding what effort and what initiative works specifically for our population in our community.”
A former Berkshire County resident familiar to longtime WAMC listeners is also involved in the outreach effort.
“I'm the Associate Director of Overdose Prevention at Boston Medical Center, where I oversee the Safe Spot overdose hotline," said former North Adams first responder and harm reduction advocate Stephen Murray. "I'm also an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health.”
The hotline is a virtual way to overcome one of the most dangerous factors in consuming substances — doing it alone and overdosing without anyone nearby to help.
“We know through data that the number one risk factor for fatal overdose is using alone," Murray told WAMC. "And so, if you think about it in the context of Naloxone or Narcan distribution, it's really great if everybody has Narcan, but if nobody is there with you to recognize that you're having an overdose and to push the plunger on the Narcan, then you have lost your chance there- And we sort of fill that void by being the people that are there in case no one else is.”
The 24/7 service has supervised about 21,000 use events since 2023 and has successfully reversed 23 overdoses.
The Berkshire overdose prevention awareness day of action will take place in Pittsfield, North Adams, Adams, Great Barrington, Lenox, Lee, Williamstown, Hancock, Lanesborough, Cheshire, and Dalton from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday.
