Over the past decade, Carbon County has seen a 334 percent increase in the number of overdose calls coming through the 911 communications center annually.

This week, the commissioners spoke about the increase in call volumes relating to drugs that occurred in the county last year.Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that in 2016, dispatchers handled a total of 895 calls that were for overdoses. This is up 183 overdose calls from 2015.He pointed out that in 2006, EMS handled a total of 206 calls, but today, they are handling 616 cases annually. Police went from 95 calls in 2007, the first year data was recorded for police calls, to 279 last year."You can see the problem is not going away and it is increasing steadily over the years," Nothstein said, adding that the number of cases for overdoses doesn't take into account calls that came in as an unconscious person, code blue, suicide, mental problem or unknown issues. "It's really difficult to track the true number of calls that we get for drug overdoses."He said that the numbers represented in the call figures also don't take into consideration people who die as a result of heart attacks or other issues that are brought on by drugs; can make it to an emergency room on their own; go to St. Luke's Miners Campus in Coaldale, which is out of the county; or cases handled by the state police, who cover approximately half of the county.Nothstein said the county doesn't have the final number of overdose deaths from the coroner's office yet, but the last report stated that there were 17 confirmed overdose deaths in 2016, with a few possibles still pending toxicology reports.This growing trend is one reason Carbon County is working to increase addiction programs in the prison and courts, which are both seeing growing caseloads and offenders come through the doors."We're trying to get programs to eliminate some of the problems we are encountering here, in the state and nationwide," Nothstein said.