Blair County Sheriff James Ott on Battle with the Fentanyl Epidemic

Blair County Sheriff James Ott thinks that there needs to be more done about the battle with the fentanyl epidemic. 

He said that they are starting to make changes.  

Talking about his experience with the fentanyl problem, Ott said that he is in a unique position because he wears two hats.

With his profession, it is a struggle every day that they see the increasing battles on the street with the abuse and the opiate addiction that they have.

“We see that battle,” Ott said.  “We watch family members turn themselves inside out trying to save loved ones trying to get them to understand that it takes that individual to be the ones willing to fight that battle and take it on.”

He said that it is a challenge to do so, in order to take that and be successful with that is very difficult.  

“If it was up to the loved ones, the family members of the loved ones who are the addicts just by wishing and wanting of our desires for their well-being, they would be cured but that’s not how it works,” Ott said.

He said it is really up to them, and it is not prejudicial. 

“It will attack any family, all walks of life, whether it be from the highest income to the lowest income, from the most educated to the least educated, and everyone in between,” Ott said. “For a family that may think that will never happen to me, it can very well happen to you. When it does happen to you, it is devastating. “

He said that usually, with family members, they will do everything they can to help.

“They have to do it for themselves,” Ott said.  “You have to provide the support and let them know that you are there if they’re willing to take that effort and take on that challenge and face that.”

Sometimes, it’s not that simple because it takes over so much in the mind and controls.  The person, who they are now as an addict is not the person, who the families knew as the loved one growing up.

Ott’s son passed away as a result of a Fentanyl overdose.

He said that it was frustrating and devastating.  

“Part of how I got through it was relying on my upbringing, my faith, putting my trust in God, and praying and asking him for strength to get through it,” Ott said.

He said that it wasn’t easy at all, and still has moments of feeling defeated. 

Ott said when he looks back at it, he asks himself if trying soft or hard love would have been better.

“I was reinforcing constantly that I loved my son and who he was and not what he had become — I told him that,” he said. “That was always hard.  When he died and that was the struggle you had with it. “  

Ott remembers that they had his son through multiple rehabs, he was incarcerated multiple times and continued to have arrests.  

Sometimes, people thought that he would try to get his son out of stuff, but he didn’t. 

“Anybody in our profession shouldn’t be doing that for our loved ones,” Ott said.  “It doesn’t help them.  That’s a hard thing to do, to not want to reach out and try to help them.”

He said that the reality is that trying to make something go away or trying to help them through an easier path, that’s not what is going to get them to recovery.

When it came to the point of Ott’s son passing, he asked himself what he could have done better.

“I don’t know — I think we did as much as we thought we could do,” he said. “At the end of the day, it still falls on his shoulders to say, today is the day that I am finally going to take that step, moving forward and stick with it.  He could just never keep that step going forward.  It would be a very short period and then relapse.”

Ott said as far as law enforcement goes, they are always looking at what tools to add to the arsenal.  

They also consider additional training to help them prepare.

“The problem is anytime you are dealing with criminal elements, especially with the drugs, by the time it is recognized and what new is coming out, you’re already behind,” he said.

Ott said trying to get ahead of it is always a challenge. 

“It’s got such a foothold that it is difficult to try and gain momentum to get ahead of it,” he said.

Ott said when it gets to the courts, there needs to be legislation to make sure the crime and punishment fit.

Ott said treatment is another major factor.

“They’re all booked,” he said about treatment facilities.  “Every time you try to check somewhere to get someone’s help, finding a bed is always a struggle.”

Ott said while there are a lot of good programs in Blair County, they are all overwhelmed.  

“I think that we need to look at all aspects to see where improvements can be made and wherever they are, try to find the funding to make that happen,” he said.

Ott said that it is the responsibility of each and every elected official and law enforcement out there to try to do as much as they can.  

“As a whole, we need to do as much as we can do and find the tools available,” he said  “This is an amazingly high epidemic plaguing every one of our communities.”

Ott said him speaking out does not mean he thinks someone being an addict is anybody else’s fault.

“I am not pointing fingers saying that my son became an addict because of any elected official or any leader or anything like that,” he said. “My son became an addict because he decided to pursue that course or that path of life.”

Ott said he does not think his son planned to become an addict.

“Do I think for a second that my son was planning on his first encounter with it that he was going to become an addict?” he said. “No, I don’t think so.  The problem is that once it happened, it grabbed a hold of him.”

Ott said that the poison that is in our communities would be less available and we may not be at the level of an epidemic that we are today if we had done things sooner.  

“I understand that things are being done now, but why weren’t they being done sooner than this?” he said.