ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The number of overdose deaths in Monroe County is going down significantly, and one of the biggest reasons for the drop is the increased availability of Naloxone, a medicine that reverses overdoses.

Click here for a link to the Naloxone box locations in Monroe County.

There are now more than 600 boxes of Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, around the county. This life-saving medication was not readily available when Stephanie Forrester was an active user.

“I became addicted to substances after my mother passed away,” said Stephanie Forrester, founder of Recovery All Ways.

Forrester says she used her mother’s left-over prescription pills to soften the pain. She became addicted and lost her home and children. She reached a turning point when her husband died from an overdose.

“And that’s when I did my first outreach event,” Forrester said.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “And how are you now?”

Stephanie Forrester: “I just celebrated eight years sober on October 9th.”

Forrester got a house and got her children back and started her own outreach called Recovery All Ways and won the News10NBC Jefferson Award in 2020.

Berkeley Brean: “What do you make in this decline?”

Stephanie Forrester: “So Narcan is available now, right? It’s in boxes on the streets.”

Berkeley Brean: “So what we see happening is working.”

Stephanie Forrester: “Yes, it’s working. Having Narcan available is absolutely what needs to happen. Having testing strips available so people can test their drugs before they’re using it is working. Having legal, free, affordable access to weed is helping people with coping through their recovery journey.”

Here are the numbers. As of Oct. 15, 2024, there were 239 overdoses and 48 deaths in Monroe County. At the same time last year, there were almost double that number — 443 overdoses and 107 deaths. Across the state, the drop is closer to 16 percent.

Brean: “What do you attribute this decline to?”
Dep. Michael Favata, Monroe County Heroin Task Force: “They’ve talked about the Naloxone boxes, more than 600 public facing Naloxone boxes that the county has put out.”

Brean: “So based on your experience, is this sustainable?”
Dep. Michael Favata: “I hope so. Listen, we’re not the experts in the treatment world. We bring them to the professionals. But having the relationship that I have with them, meaning the people that do the treatment and talking to them on a day to day basis, it’s positive.”

Dep. Favata of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Heroin Task Force says he started to see the numbers go down in the summer.

“When those were starting to separate that’s a good sign, that’s what we like to see. But we don’t want to jinx it because we said this back in 2019 and then we caught back up within three months,” said Dep. Favata.

Forrester credits testing strips to make sure drugs don’t have fentanyl, access to legal marijuana to help people recover, and the hard work in the community.

“I hope it continues. I really do. It’s amazing and let’s really focus on harm reduction because this all stems from harm reduction,” Forrester said.

The Sheriff’s Office says every overdose costs about $1,900. That’s the cost of first responders, the ambulance ride, and the hospital stay. So in addition to saving precious lives, this decline saves money. In just the drop of overdoses from last year, the savings is around $400,000.

Here’s a link to Monroe County’s IMPACT, which responds when an overdose happens in the county.

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