Drug poisoning deaths in Chatham County have been steadily on the rise since 2015, with a dramatic increase between 2019 and 2020. The Opiod Settlement funds which have been distributed to Chatham County will help to increase the amount of resources to curb the opiod and drug crisis. However, it is important to recognise that many stastimic issues, such as poverty, lack of affordable adidction treatment, etc. contribute to the epidemic of drug misuse. Naloxane kits, and the ability to provide them more widely in the community will help decrease drug oerdose deaths in the county, but will be unlikely to make a huge impact on the misuse of drugs.

Chatham Health Alliance, Chatham County Public Librairies, Chatham County Sherrifs Department, Sherrif's Prevention Partnership, Pharmacies, Daymark Recovery, Insight Human Servies

According to a study by Katzman et al. (2020), take-home naloxone kits increased numbers of community reversals of overdoses among study participants. Prior to the program, 4/8% of study participants had preformed an overdose refersal compared to 18% at the end of the study year. Take-home naloxone is an important part of a strategic harm reduction response to the drug misuse epidemic.