Fayette County Sheriff forced to pull from county resources to help rehab addicted inmates

FAYETTE COUNTY, Ohio (WSYX/WTTE) — A small farming community of just 28,666 people, Fayette County has learned no one's immune to the opioid crisis, as they struggle to fight addiction within the walls of its jail with limited resources. “Every county has a drug problem, and if they say there’s not, they’re in big denial,” said Sheriff Vernon Stanforth.

In 2018, medics treated nearly 100 people for suspected opiate overdoses in the county with naloxone, including one person at the jail. There have been 40 overdoses in the county already in the first half of 2019. In recent years, there have been two overdose deaths at the jail in Washington Court House, one in 2016 and one in 2017. “The addiction is so severe, they’ll do anything and everything to get their next fix," Stanforth said.