Over the past six years, overdose deaths among Black and Hispanic residents have risen sharply. So has the number of trips to the emergency department because of overdoses. To tackle the crisis, the county has launched new programs. In part three of WFAE’s series, we speak with doctors, drug users, and county staff about their plans with the nearly $75 million they expecte to receive over the next 18 years to address the opioid crisis.
Dr. Christopher Griggs walked into the emergency department before heading to his office at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center. Ambulances idle outside the building near Myers Park. Monday through Thursday are typically the busiest days for the department, Griggs said.
Griggs helps oversee a new post-overdose response team that launched in October.
“We’ve been going out to street corners and areas where we know there’s a lot of overdoses and drug use, and in engaging the population and building relationships,” Griggs said.
The team’s four paramedics are going to places like uptown, public bathrooms, and have left business cards with street shops. The $2 million initiative is one of the county's efforts to reduce overdose deaths, especially in communities that have been especially hard hit, like Black county residents. Griggs says there’s a reason overdose deaths have risen in that minority community in recent years.
“The drug supply in those communities probably has more fentanyl in recent years,” Griggs said. "So, that's why we've seen those increases, but then those resources maybe weren't connected to that community as they needed to be.”
By resources, Griggs points towards harm reduction programs. Hispanic residents have also been heavily impacted. County data also shows that visits to the Emergency Department because of an overdose rose every year from 2019 to 2023. Among Black residents, emergency department overdose visits grew from 641 reported visits in 2019 to over 1,000 in 2023. Despite those statistics, there has been some positive news.
In 2024, the number of fatal overdoses dropped for the first time among Black and Hispanic residents in the past six years. It also dropped for white Mecklenburg County residents. Visits to emergency departments in the county followed the same trend, by dropping from over 2,500 visits in 2023 to under 1,900 reported overdose visits last year.
Griggs says there are reasons behind those positive trends.
“Improving access to healthcare, improving the amount of naloxone in the community, all those efforts are reducing overdose deaths,” Griggs said. "I also think that there is likely something changing in the drug supply.”
More programs, more spending
Raynard Washington, the county’s public health director, pulled up a dashboard in his office to show the county's allocations. From 2023 to 2025, the county has allocated over $10 million to address the opioid crisis. At least $5 million is going towards housing and recovery support services.
“It's very difficult to think about, you know, if you go into an inpatient environment for opioid use disorder treatment, you come out, let's say 90 days later, you've got to have a way to live, you've got to have a place to live,” Washington said.
Funds are also going towards naloxone distribution and syringe programs. As for why we've seen a decrease in overdose deaths amongst Black and Hispanic residents last year, he credits the funding supporting those programs.
"We've distributed more Narcan in the last couple of years than we ever have in the history of the county,” Washington said. "As well as making sure that we are raising awareness about the risk of opioid overdose. So that work, I think, is contributing.”
Inside Mecklenburg County’s detention center in uptown, the doors open to a pod area. Stepping in dressed in orange alongside a security guard was one inmate, who WFAE is not naming for legal reasons.
The inmate is enrolled in the county's new Medication Assisted Treatment program, which helps people get clean. The program costs close to $2 million. The program supports people like the inmate, who says he’s used heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and Percocet to help him cope.
“Depression, family problems, my brother died,” the inmate said.
The inmate, who is originally from Puerto Rico, says he lived on the streets before being locked up. While living on the streets, his well-being was a concern.
“I was going to jump off a bridge here in Charlotte, and my friend saved me,” the inmate said.
The inmate has been locked up since August for possession of a firearm. Through the MAT program, he says things are changing.
“It has helped me a lot. I’ve been calm. I’m not thinking about drugs,” the inmate said. "I’m staying busy writing. I never used to write, and I’m drawing.”
About a dozen other inmates are part of the MAT program. Nurses and doctors provide medication like suboxone or methadone to help reduce withdrawals and cravings. Despite efforts to stop overdose deaths, there has been a fatal incident in the detention center.
A state medical examiner's report highlighted that a 38-year-old Hispanic man was found lying unresponsive in his bunk at the detention center in August and was pronounced dead. The report added that the 38-year-old was last seen alive by a health care professional when he was "unintentionally administered a recently discharged inmate's 110 milligram methadone dose.”
The report stated the cause of death as methadone toxicity and the manner of death as an accident. The sheriff’s office said in a statement to WFAE that they couldn’t comment as multiple investigations into the death are ongoing.
Dr. Stephanie Porter helps support people in the MAT program. She said that for many in jail, leaving can be especially dangerous for people with addictions.
“Opioids are the most dangerous in my opinion, ” Porter said. "Everything is dangerous, but people are dying out there. A lot of the time, they get out of here, and they die, and I don’t want that to happen.”
Back at Atrium Hospital, some nurses smiled and laughed as a few of the patient rooms sat empty near them. Nearby stood Dr. Griggs. This time, Dr. Griggs didn't have to rush in to inject someone to reverse an overdose, as only an empty stretcher awaited him.
The quiet is a small break in what has been a relentless cycle for doctors. And with more funds on the horizon and overdose deaths beginning to fall, he hopes the cycle is finally starting to ease in the community and for those hardest hit in recent years.
That’s part three of WFAE’s series that looks at why overdose deaths in the Black and Hispanic communities have risen in recent years. And how the county is responding.
WFAE's Julian Berger contributed to this report.
